Climate Change Drives Endangered Seabird Into UK Waters

Around 10 per cent of the world population of Balearic shearwaters has visited UK inshore waters this summer and autumn, with more than 1,200 birds being recorded from just one watchpoint near Land's End in Cornwall. The findings come from a new survey, led by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) in collaboration with the RSPB, which has been monitoring numbers of the birds off the coast of South West England. Balearic shearwaters are the only European seabird to be classified as 'critically endangered' on the recently released 2007 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List. They could become extinct by 2050 if current rates of decline continue. Dr Russell Wynn, who is co-ordinating the SeaWatch SW survey, said: 'Balearic shearwaters leave their Mediterranean breeding colonies in late summer and head for richer feeding grounds along north Atlantic coasts. The numbers recorded during the survey this year show how important our inshore waters are to this highly vulnerable seabird'. The survey builds upon new research recently published in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters, which highlights global warming as a key driver behind the upsurge in UK Balearic shearwater sightings. Dr Wynn and colleagues showed how northeast Atlantic sea surface temperatures rose by 0.6 degrees Celsius in the mid-1990s, triggering a northwards shift in the Balearic shearwater's prey fish species and with it the birds that feed on them.