Here is a chance for everyone to pack their scope and head for the seaside. Who knows what you might see!
FAME – Future of the Atlantic Marine Environment
“Seatrack” - the Irish Seabird Passage Project
“Seatrack” - the Irish Seabird Passage Project
Seabirds are excellent indicators of the health of marine ecosystems - large, conspicuous and at certain times of year, relatively easy to count. Seabirds, by definition, have to ‘track’ marine resources (i.e. fish, squid & plankton) closely, but these same resources are also tracked by the fishing industry. The climate change scenario of today thus influences all components of the marine ecosystem – fish, birds, cetaceans and fishermen.
In the northeast Atlantic, the Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) is a high priority, globally endangered species which has suffered a major decline in its’ breeding population in the western Mediterranean due to introduced mammalian predators, development ‘pressure’ and probably negative interactions with certain fisheries. In recent years it has become apparent that the non-breeding distribution of the Balearic Shearwater is shifting northwards, and although they have been regularly recorded in Irish waters in small numbers for a long time, our understanding of their ecological requirements and preferred destinations whilst here is very poor.
As part of a collaborative project with BirdLife International partners from Spain, Portugal, France and the UK, we are seeking to improve our knowledge of the status & distribution of Balearic Shearwaters in Ireland, where they are designated as a Red-listed species. We aim to achieve this through a series of co-ordinated, simultaneous seawatching sessions which will be undertaken at selected headlands around the whole country over specified weekends between late summer & autumn. This is where we seek your help. We would like committed seawatchers to volunteer to cover one of the identified sites (others can be added) for a minimum period on pre-selected weekends. We are not targeting weather systems (i.e. north-westerly storms) which are known to be particularly exciting at certain west coast sites but we want data from whatever ‘average’ conditions prevail on the selected weekends.
The enclosed/attached instructions and forms give an idea of what is required but please feel free to contact any of use by phone or e-mail if any clarification is needed. This is a pilot project that can be modified in future years on the basis of our experiences in the 2010 season. The priority species are shearwaters and the project will focus on picking out Balearics amongst larger movements of Manxies (there is always the chance of Sooties, Greats and Cory’s too!). If time and conditions permit, we are happy to receive counts of all species and information from other seawatches outside the selected weekends. We will give regular updates on the BWI website and via e-mail to all participants and will produce a full report during the winter period.
While contributing to this project you can still report your sightings to any of your preferred outlets such as www.birdtrack.net [note – there is a dedicated seawatching page], www.irishbirding.com, www.birdguides.com and so on. We will also maintain close links with the www.seawatch-sw.org operation coordinated by Russell Wynn in the southwest UK. Their website is a great resource for bang up-to-date seawatch results (note recent Yelkouan-type Shearwaters) and excellent photo galleries.
We look forward to hearing back from you.
Good seawatching!
Contacts
Steve Newton snewton@birdwatchireland.ie 01-2812406/087-2316109
Niall Keogh nialltkeogh@hotmail.com 085-7368133
