The RSPB Community

26 NGOs join forces to demand proper planning for our seas

Heather G — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Today is the start of the two day European Maritime Day Conference, which is being held in Malta this year. This annual event is organised by the European Commission (Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries) to encourage better stewardship of Europe’s coastal zones, seas and oceans, and highlight the crucial contribution that our marine environment plays in delivering sustainable growth.

To coincide with this, we have joined forces with 25 other NGOs across Europe to demand that the first bit (better stewardship for our marine environment) is not sacrificed for the second (‘Blue Growth’). Specifically, what we are calling for is that the proposed (and snappily named) Directive on Maritime Spatial Planning and Integrated Coastal Management (with the equally snappy acronym, MSP-ICM) gets rooted in a firmer environmental legal basis.

Quite simply, unless MSP-ICM is used in a way that bases decisions on the health of the environment - and on the precautionary principle - the EU’s ’Blue Growth’ agenda will never be sustainable. It’s not just the sensible decision to take in terms of building a long term future for the maritime economy, it’s also a legal requirement. The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires Member States, including the UK Government, to achieve Good Environmental Status for our marine environment – and as such should be the prime legal purpose when planning how to manage it.

You can read our full statement here: (Please visit the site to view this file)

Worse things are happening at sea

Heather G — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:23:31 GMT

It's been an important week for our marine environment, with the Common Fisheries Policy under discussion, and the first small steps towards a review of the seabird killer PIB. Check out Martin's blog for the latest update.

They also have the right to live

Leo Tamini — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:06:00 GMT

Among the activities that we conduct as ATF instructors, working with the crew aboard fishing vessels is the most difficult to accurately quantify. We can identify a seabird to species or sub-species level, record the exact times of fishing operations, statistically demonstrate the efficiency of mitigation measures but working at-sea with members of the fishing crew is different. It is a deeply social aspect of our work that includes listening as much as talking, understanding as much as convincing.

As ATF instructors we spend a lot of time at the stern of the vessel, and the interaction with these people is continuous. The results are not easily palpable. How successful has our work with a fishing crew been? How can we know that we are achieving our objectives in this regard? Many times we find difficult individuals who are completely sceptical of mitigation measures but also the opposite is true. We regularly find fishers who are willing to listen, to give their opinion and to discuss ideas but above all we find people that respect the sea and its inhabitants.

This is the case of two very different members of two different vessels: Claudio and Pedro. Both occupy the post of ship’s boson, whose duties include directing fishing operations and manoeuvres on deck.

Below: Pedro works the winches on deck with his ATF Argentina cap

With over 22 years of experience on board, Claudio commented that "Many years ago there were many more albatrosses than we see today. It is clear that populations have declined." Pedro has worked at-sea for over 17 years and always wears his ATF Argentina cap on deck. He has learnt to recognise many of the species that interact with the ship and is able to precisely separate the "age class" of many birds and on calm days attracts dolphins by whistling!

During the first days of a recent trip, my colleague Nahuel was astounded by the crew’s collaboration, interest and willingness to learn. Nahuel asked Claudio what drove the interest of the crew to help save the albatross. Claudio explained with a humble look, but the firmness of a worker that: "They also have the right to live"

While we cannot easily or accurately record how the social aspect of our work with fishers, we know that thanks to the ATF there are more Pedros and Claudios. By finding more ambassadors for respecting marine life, we can move toward our main objective - more birds at sea!

Below: Claudio helps ATF instructor Nahuel with a tori line and the off-setting towed device known as the Tamini Tabla

Industry joins the call to ban the seabird killer PIB

Heather G — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:41:00 GMT

By Alec Taylor, Marine Policy Officer

I’ve just popped out of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)’s meeting of its environmental subcommittee. I say committee, but it’s more like a UN General Assembly, with hundreds of delegates from all over the globe and interpretation into at least five languages!

It would be a future meeting of this group that would discuss and ultimately decide whether polyisobutene (PIB), the substance responsible for over 4,000 slow, lingering seabird deaths so far this year, should be reclassified under international shipping regulations to prevent its discharge at sea altogether.

In connection with this week’s meeting, the RSPB, along with other wildlife NGOs, have joined forces with the UK Chamber of Shipping (supported by the wider industry association MaritimeUK) to make a ground-breaking collective call on the UK Government to press ahead with an urgent review of PIB’s discharge status. Currently, it is legal to discharge PIB based on certain conditions, but all sides feel that this should be urgently reviewed, regardless of the outcome of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s investigations into this year’s tragic seabird deaths.

PIB has no place in our precious oceans and seas, and now it’s not just us saying that but the shipping and ports industries themselves, who represent over £30 billion to the UK economy, support over half a million jobs and provide £8.5bn in tax receipts to the UK Treasury. We’ll be united when we say to the UK government that we think the full risks of PIB are not properly known, and that we need the UK to step up to lead a review, and then present it to a future meeting of the IMO.

Visit this blog for updates of how we get on – you can sign up to get new posts straight in to your inbox on the right - and thanks to everyone for your support so far. It may be a small change to ensure all PIB is removed from tanks while in port, but in the global world of shipping, it could make a real difference to seabirds and would be one less pressure on our marine environment in general.

You can read the joint statement here – and remember you can show your support to ban this seabird killer by signing the online petitions at 38 degrees and Avaaz”

Thanks,

Alec

Butterflies and bobbins around Morecambe Bay

Jenny Wain — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:23:12 GMT

Spring is slowly taking hold around Morecambe Bay, but as temperatures drop and the rain blows in, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Even on a rainy day there are some special places to explore with signs of spring and hopes for a sunny day. Last week on such a rainy day I was lucky enough to head up to High Dam - which is a few miles inland from the coast of Morecambe Bay and a short trip from Windermere, to see if we could find the home of some of the rare butterflies found around Morecambe...(read more)

History should tell us something

Andre Farrar — Sat, 11 May 2013 15:58:48 GMT

Roughly once a decade airport planners cast their eyes east of London into the marshes and wetlands of the Thames Estuary. In some sort of grotesque bring-forward diary the arguments for (largely its not somewhere else) and the arguments against (communities wiped out, landscapes re-modelled with massive losses of nature’s homes and an assault on our surviving natural world, huge an unpredictable flooding risks around the coasts of the South East, entirely predictable risk of bird-strike ....(read more)

Lessons in life

Tim Webb — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:46:23 GMT

I was always told at school that history helps us make sense of the 'now' and prevents us repeating the mistakes of previous generations. Some of us must have had pretty useless history teachers, because lessons were not learned.

The UK Government's SEVENTH report into proposals for a major new airport in the Thames Estuary has been published and it's reached the same conclusions as its six predecessors: it's too environmentally damaging, too great a risk from bird strike and... way too expensive.

The RSPB has welcomed this aspect of their reccomendations,but we're not happy with the Transport Select Committee's support for a third runway at Heathrow; maybe an even bigger expansion west of the existing facilities.

One of our main objections to expanding the number of flights is the commitment to reducing emissions 80% by 2050; a legally binding agreement the UK Government signed up to. We applaud that Government commitment because it was made to address climate change, the single biggest threat to UK wildlife. If the Government were to allow any airport expansion, they'd break their own rules and undermine their own targets. That would be messier than crumbled meringue and mashed strawberry stirred through cream.

There's still plenty of time for those championing a new airport in the Thames Estuary to stamp their feet in the hope sensible folk will be ground down by their nagging. The Aviation Review doesn't report back until after the next general election.

Meanwhile, here we are with the indisputable facts bearing-up to scrutiny once again.

1. The Thames Estuary is a dynamic and unique place that cannot be reproduced on the same scale anywhere in Europe.

2. Destroying aspects of it for an airport would do irreparable harm to the birds and wildlife that live their fragile lives along its beautiful but inhospitable mudflats, marshes and wilds. It is not empty space. It's nature's industrial complex where air, water and primary food sources are manufactured and processed.

3. Consider for a moment the volatile cocktail of the vast numbers of biggish birds that fill the estuary's airspace and the dash of planes from runways in its heart. You'll need brave pilots willing to face that mix and still guarantee their passengers' safety.

There's still a lot to protect and cherish in the Thames Estuary and I'm sure there are individuals who will happily continue to ignore history and throw more money at inquiries. If I were a cynic, I'd predict we'll reach ten Government reports before we've reduced emissions 10%. But I'm a cup half-full sort of person, so I'm looking forward to standing shoulder-to shoulder with Mayor Boris Johnson as we fight unnecesary expansion at Heathrow on the grounds that it's too expensive, too environmentally damaging and undermines our Government's obligations to reduce emissions 80% by 2050.

Redstart Ramble

Carl Cornish — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:30:56 GMT

Sherwood Forest is a special place with a wealth of special wildlife. The redstart is an iconic bird of Sherwood Forest – more widespread and numerous in upland areas, it is on the edge of its eastern range in the Midlands here in Sherwood Forest. Redstarts are summer migrants, about the size of a robin, but slimmer with a red tail, which is obvious when seen and they have the habit of frequently flicking their tail. Its name means red tail as ‘start’ derives from ‘steort’...(read more)

Crunch time for CFP reform

Heather G — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:30:00 GMT

By Euan Dunn, Principal Marine Advisor

On Monday and Tuesday next week, the Council of Fisheries Ministers are meeting in Brussels, under the Irish Presidency and Irish Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney.

They will have a huge say in deciding the fate of European fisheries for the next ten years and beyond. They will be making crucial decisions about the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, a once-in-decade opportunity to put right a highly discredited, broken system of managing what is a public good – our fish stocks and the marine environment that harbours them.

Last reviewed in 2002, this time the CFP reform has been something of a breach birth. It was meant to come into force on the 1^st of January 2012 but negotiations have been tortuous, not least because this time around it’s not just the Council, but also the European Parliament that have to reach collective agreement on the measures to be taken. This has resulted in a two year delay, with a target date for implementation now being January 2014.

And the Parliament has set the bar high for the Council of Ministers by voting overwhelmingly in February for a radical reform that could end decades of overfishing and put us on track to recover fish stocks by 2020. The RSPB and the other NGOs have given a huge tip of the hat to the Parliament for their bold and unprecedented level of ambition.

The European Parliament’s vote next week therefore throws down the gauntlet to the weaker Council position. However, a number of Member States, including France, Spain, Poland, Lithuania, Greece and Romania, are resisting efforts to find common ground with the Parliament on key issues such as fleet management and discards. In fact the only major issue on which the Council is currently showing its willingness to compromise with the Parliament is on recovering stock levels to the so-called ‘maximum sustainable yield’.

It’s vital that the Irish Presidency does not give in to the Council detractors from far-reaching reform. Rather the Presidency must support those countries which are championing a really positive sea change in the CFP. To do otherwise is to condemn fish stocks to the status of a guttering candle and those communities dependent on them to becoming a sunset industry. To do otherwise is also a recipe for fishing continuing to inflict unacceptable collateral damage on the wider marine environment, not least the needless toll of seabirds killed in fishing gears.

Commendably, the UK’s Richard Benyon is in the vanguard for positive reform – and he deserves our support to stick to his position.

In the last ditch Council saloon, the RSPB is therefore urging Richard Benyon and his fellow Ministers to strike a compromise that includes a timeline for stock recovery, and targeted measures to eliminate overfishing and promote low-impact fishing. We urge them to set measures that will minimize discards and other bycatch, stops fleets growing ever more powerful, and put a halt once and for all to the damaging subsidies to which the fishing industry has become addicted.

Please get behind our Minister and show your support for the lead he has been taking among the more enlightened fishing nations. You can show your support for Richard Benyon by tweeting for a strong CFP deal @RICHARDBENYONMP #CFPREFORM

Trawler: Bern Altman, www.sxc.hu

Greetings from the STAR team on Colonsay

Leianna — Tue, 07 May 2013 08:23:00 GMT

Emily Scragg, Senior Research Assistant with the Seabird Tracking And Research team on Colonsay, tells us about her preparations for the upcoming season.

Greetings from the STAR (Seabird Tracking And Research) team on Colonsay!

It is our fourth year here on the island (and my first) carrying out seabird tracking work with the previous three years tracking carried out as part of the Future of the Atlantic Marine Environment (FAME) project. This research aims to find out where UK seabirds are foraging in order to help inform the Marine Protected Area (MPA) designation process. Previous years tracking data is freely available to the public, policy makers and renewables companies at webgis.spea.pt/FAME. We encourage everyone to explore our ground-breaking results for themselves.

We are one of four STAR teams collecting data this year, with the others based on Orkney, Fair Isle and Rathlin (in addition to collaborating with people on the Isle of May, Skomer and Puffin Island).

Tessa and I are based on Colonsay for the next three months, a small island in the Southern Hebrides which is home to around 100 people, a general store, a bookshop and a brewery...what more could you want!? The landscape is comprised of a wide range of habitats from heather moorland to dunes, machair, sandy beaches and sea cliffs, and consequently has exceptionally rich biodiversity. Along with Islay it is the only place you can find breeding chough in Scotland.

We arrived here two weeks ago and have spent the time preparing for the field season ahead – this has involved a wide variety of tasks from re-acquainting ourselves with the locals (and the local cakes!) to cleaning and sorting equipment, reccing sites, and preparing the GPS tags we use on the birds.

The tags take quite a bit of sorting before they are ready: each must be charged and discharged at least twice, and then run through a series of tests to check that it is in full working order. We have over 150 tags so this is no mean feat! Fortunately we've been able to intersperse this with trips to the cliffs to re-familiarise ourselves with the sites and find out what the birds are up to – the short answer has so far been 'not much'. Shags are the first species we tag on Colonsay but we have to wait until they are settled on their nests incubating, and this year the onset of breeding for the shags appears to have been delayed. This could be due to the high winds and waves we've been experiencing. When breeding, When breeding, shags forage in shallower waters close to the colony and can find it difficult to feed when high winds cause turbulent waters.

On Monday we visited the local school to talk to them about our project and to try out the 'FAME game'. This involves sending the children to 'forage' for Sandeel fact cards whilst carrying one of the tags. We can then download the tracks from the tags and show them where they've been. With a class size of 3 (2 were off sick) it was a little intense but I think all of them had fun and learnt something about us and about the birds we study.

Aside from preparing for the field season we have been having fun at the island's Spring Festival. There have been a lot of talks and workshops on offer and we have been taking advantage of our relative free time to explore these fully! Spring is well underway on the island – we saw our first Cuckoo of the year last week and a Corncrake was heard yesterday in one of the fields near where we live. There are lambs gambolling everywhere you look and the Primroses are in bloom, as SpringWatch would have it “Spring has sprung”!

Our other teams have also been working hard: Team Rathlin has already tagged 3 birds on Great Saltee, team Orkney has been preparing for their first off-island trip and team Fair Isle have been playing it easy as their equipment only arrived on the ferry a few days ago! The advantage (or disadvantage) of once-a-week post. We will all be keeping you updated throughout the season with our progress.

Dawn Chorus at Sherwood Forest NNR

Carl Cornish — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:20:00 GMT

Sunday 28th April - 5am in the main car park of Sherwood Forest NNR and 10 people had gathered for a dawn chorus walk with Claire Watson, Nottinghamshire County Council ranger, and me. The early birds singing in the dawn chorus were blackbirds , robins , wrens , and great and blue tits . Blackbirds have a rich, lusty song often with a chuckle at the finish as though they’re pleased with that particular performance. The robin’s is more refined – chamber music rather than the full...(read more)

A swift decline and an Easter Extravaganza

RSPBRoseanna — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:44:00 GMT

The annual Easter craft fare came to the grounds of Wollaton Hall and deer park , Nottingham on the 29th-30 th March, hosting a wide range of stalls and displays from local craftsmen and women throughout Nottingham. From cakes, to knit wear, bird boxes, candle makers and of course, who other than.......... the RSPB! It’s not very often you see a number of garden birds, such as chaffinches & blue tits, foraging alongside the site of a brown long eared bats and water voles in a great hall...(read more)

Visitors go wild for Morecambe Bay

Jenny Wain — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:09:00 GMT

I've been working around Morecambe Bay for just over a year now, looking at ways nature organisations can work with tourism businesses to promote the nature of the Bay area. This is part of the Morecambe Bay Futurescape programme. One of the first things I did was get together a band of volunteers to help me carry out over 400 visitor surveys last autumn. We spent time talking to people at different places around the Bay to find out why they came to the area and what they did whilst they were...(read more)

All washed up

Heather G — Wed, 01 May 2013 08:30:00 GMT

Following last week’s blog from the wonderful rubbish-busting team on Coquet Island, our equally wonderful team on Ramsey Island sent me these pictures (thanks Lisa!).

After just one storm one of Ramsay’s beaches was filled with plastic bottles (enough to fill 20 bin bags – yes, twenty, from just one small beach!), along with the usual monofilament fishing line, rope, aerosols, and even part of an old fridge freezer!

The team did a great job clearing the beach. Not a happy task, but time very well spent.

As the weather is starting to improve, encouraging us all to get out and about more often, anything you can do to help remove rubbish from your environment is a help to wildlife. Why not take a rubbish bag (and some gloves!) next time you are out for a walk? Or perhaps organise a litter pick where you live? Your council may be able to help. I’m doing a littler pick in my village in a couple of weeks time. The council brings the bags, litter pick ‘grabber’ sticks, protective gloves, fluorescent tabards, and take away the rubbish immediately afterwards to dispose of it properly. Two years ago we found an abundance of lager cans in just one short stretch of ditch. Last year we found more than 30 empty vodka bottles in the same place. I wonder if it will be meths this year!

The Inner Forth Landscape what now? Let me explain.....

david anderson — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:42:00 GMT

Hello from a very sunny (for the moment) Skinflats nature reserve. We have a bit of a treat today, it's the first Futurescapes guest blog! This has been written by Kate Fuller of the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative, a project which is delivering parts of the Inner Forth Futurescape, plus a lot more........ actually I think I'll leave it to Kate to do the explaining, enjoy!! Hello I’m Kate Fuller, the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative (IFLI) Community Engagement and Projects Officer...(read more)

Artisanal fishermen’s perception and seabird conservation in Chilean Patagonia

Cristián Suazo — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 10:38:46 GMT

The sub-Antarctic islands and fjords in southern Chile together form a complex geographic area with thousands of components of archipelagos and marine channels. In this region, also known as Chilean (western) Patagonia, there are important breeding sites for seabirds. Among these, two of the most important islands are Diego Ramirez and Ildefonso, which together hold over 20% of the global population of Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophrys.

Along the Chilean coast, seabird species overlap with different fishing activities including industrial and artisanal fisheries. In addition, this part of Patagonia supports other productive activities such as Salmon farming. One such area is the Chonos Archipelago at 45°S.

Globally, interactions between seabirds and commercial fishing activities have been well documented but little information is available regarding the impacts of the more traditional fishing practices on seabird populations. Chilean researchers have recently published a study entitled: Fishermen’s perceptions of interactions between seabirds and artisanal fisheries in the Chonos archipelago, Chilean Patagonia which can be found in the conservation journal Oryx.

Below: artisanal fishing vessel on the Chonos archipelago in Chile. Cristian Suazo.

By means of interviews with fishermen, questionnaires and field-based observations the authors determined the extent to which artisanal fisheries interact with and affect seabirds in the fjords and channels of the Chonos Archipelago. This is one of the most poorly-studied regions in Chile because of its geographic isolation and extreme weather conditions.

Fishermen demonstrated a positive perception of seabirds as useful indicators of marine productivity and in their role scavenging fish waste and discards associated with fishing operations. However, fishermen also established seasonal camps to collect seabird eggs and adults for food or bait and introduced feral predators [such as domestic dogs] to islands with seabird breeding colonies.

Minimal bycatch events were recorded due to their fishing gear characteristics, which included a fast sink rate for longlines. As a counterpart to their negative impacts, local knowledge from fishermen on marine biodiversity is critical for the future of community-based conservation of the region’s marine resources and biodiversity. Fishers also bring us a key view of past and current changes in seabird behaviour related to fisheries. They observe local and regional environmental changes from the impacts of an expanding and large-scale aquaculture activity on the distribution and abundance of seabirds along this part of Patagonia.

This study was supported by the Pacific Seabird Group through the Craig S. Harrison Conservation Grant and the Association of Field Ornithologists through the E. Alexander Bergstrom Memorial Research Award.

For a three-week period, the publication of this research can be found as online free access at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0030605311001815 (with supplementary material).

Puffins say no to plastic

Heather G — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:20:00 GMT

A few years ago I spent a lucky three months on a remote Fijian island. I was volunteering in a conservation project that ultimately contributed to the waters around the tiny island being designated a Marine Protected Area. It was an amazing experience that was full of wonderful surprises.

And one less pleasant surprise.

The amount of litter that washed up on the beach round the headland (where the prevailing winds struck the island) was depressing. We regularly cleared it, but every tide brought a new barrage of plastic bottles, tattered flip flops, plastic rope and the like. Detritus that can spell death to marine wildlife.

Our own marine wildlife closer to home suffers just the same problem So our wonderful warden Wes and volunteers at Coquet Island recently did a good bit of beach clearing – and made this fabulous video to encourage us all to reduce, reuse and recycle where we can.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

(Don't) blame it on the weatherman

Jo Sampson — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:30:14 GMT

Every year my colleague Rolf (Williams – Kent Communications Officer) gets the plum job of soaring 1,000ft up above the Thames Estuary in a micro-light. In his words this is “ a privileged, if precarious, position from which to visit the whole of the Greater Thames Futurescape, viewed from the birds’ perspective”. Fortunately, with the power of the digital camera we too can sample a bird’s-eye view of this spectacular landscape, here is RSPB Northward Hill (North...(read more)

I'm calling for a riot, a riot of colour!

Tim Webb — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:28:09 GMT

Wasn't the weekend glorious? Saturday was the first day this year I was able to get outdoors and tart-up my garden. I cut the grass, forked over borders, gathered up fallen leaves, cleared old growth, sowed some seeds and enjoyed coming across some of the things that share this space.

There was a shield-bug, loads of fat worms, a couple of bees, a comma butterfly and an early painted lady butterfly; maybe it's from one of those grow your own butterfly kits that kids and organic gardeners love? Either way, the sunshine and fresh air left me feeling energised.

It was all so enjoyable I lingered into the evening, hoping to catch sight of the International Space Station scooting across the evening sky (I missed it yet again). The shocking truth pulling the rug from beneath this relaxing moment was that there wasn't a minute when I couldn't see at least one jet plane in the sky. With five airports, London's airspace is pretty busy.

Today, a new report commissioned by the RSPB, HACAN and WWF has been published raising doubts on the assertion that London's economy will benefit from increasing airport capacity.

It's been the assertion that London's economy is reliant on expansion that has driven Mayor Boris Johnson to pursue the creation of a mega-hub airport in the estuary (which he wants to call Margaret Thatcher International to "scare visitors" - call me naive, but I thought we wanted to attract visitors?). It seems the whole debate supporting airport expansion is built on flimsy foundations.

Flimsy or not, the real foundations for infrastructure development like airports involve a lot of concrete and tarmac; and an awful lot of space. Just like in my garden, stuff lives in these spaces. The cost of losing nature doesn't seem to worry the airport expansionists. They assert they can build new spaces for nature. 75% of Crops worldwide are pollinated by insects as are 94% of wild flowering plants. Bees, butterflies and more are vanishing at an alarming rate. Replacing wild spaces with new runways is not the way to support nature.

As the charity Buglife states, 'it's the small things that run the world'. Shrinking numbers of garden birds are a warning sign that nature is in touble. Rather than seeing airplanes soaring over my home, I'd far rather see developers investing in schemes which improve nature; allowing our communities, our economies and our well-being to soar. Protest against airport expansion by sowing native wildflowers and shrubs in your gardens and community spaces. That way, air passengers will be able to see a riot of colour indicating public support for nature as they fly into the Capital. Say it with flower power.

Rathlin Island's amazing volunteers

JudithC — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:09:50 GMT

Have you checked out the Rathlin Island blog yet? Click the link to see a new blog from our team at the Seabird Centre on Rathlin Island.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/rathlinisland/b/weblog/default.aspx

How can this be legal? You can help change it.

Heather G — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:58:00 GMT

There is a picture at the bottom of this blog post - I have put it at the bottom so you can choose to scroll down and see it, or not. I warn you, it is heart breaking.

It is a picture of two dead guillemots, covered in PIB. They are hardly recognisable as birds, let alone guillemots. In the background there are more dead bodies. These are just some of the birds collected from just three beaches in South Cornwall by contractors working for Cornwall Council. The bodies filled two industrial skips.

Yesterday we reported that over 1,000 birds are now known to be dead (plus countless more lost at sea). There are more than 200 live birds being cared for by the welfare charities RSPCA and South Devon Seabird Trust.

We don’t know whether this particular discharge of the killer PIB was legal or illegal. But the fact is, it can be discharged legally. And when PIB comes into contact with sea water, it turns into a sticky glue. A sticky glue that spells death to seabirds because they are no longer able to fly, and no longer able to forage. Many of the birds washed up are emaciated. It must be a cruel and lingering death.

Today we have joined forces with the RSPCA and the Wildlife Trusts calling for a ban on all discharges of PIB. We have written to Stephen Hammond MP – a minister at the Department for Transport – calling for urgent action. We urge you all to do the same.

Alternatively (or as well!) you can sign a petition – both Avaaz and 38 Degrees have organised petitions calling for the law to be changed, to make it illegal to discharge PIB in any quantity into our seas.

Remember, if you see any affected birds, please don't touch them, or let your dog touch them. We do not know how hazardous PIB may be in this format. Also, if the bird is still alive, a stressed bird is difficult to catch so you may unintentionally cause it further distress and it may escape back to sea untreated. If you find an affected live bird, please contact the RSPCA (call 0300 1234 999). If you find a dead bird, please report it to the RSPB on 01392 432691.

You can read more about PIB and our views in our briefing document.

Here is the picture:

Image: BTO Image Library

Camera's, Action! Clydach Wildlife Explorer Group visit Skomer Island

Gareth C — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:02:46 GMT

Last summer our very own Clydach Wildlife explorer group visited Skomer island.

Armed with video cameras they filmed the puffins and made a short video about why our seabirds need better protection - not just on shore but at sea too. The RSPB continues to call on Welsh Government to deliver its duties and provide protection for seabirds at sea, and hopes to have some positive messages to tell you in 2013!

(Please visit the site to view this video)

thanks to all who helped make this possible

Gareth C

Hundreds more seabirds dead

Heather G — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 08:46:00 GMT

Gannets and guillemots: Ian McCarthy

Hundreds of seabirds, mostly guillemots, have again been washed up along the south coast of England covered in a debilitating sticky substance. This is a virtual repeat of the incident back in February this year when over 500 birds were found from Devon to Dorset. See the February pages of this blog for more information.

This time however the tide of dead birds is further west in south east Cornwall and South Devon, in just a couple of days over 700 birds have been washed ashore. For a personal perspective on this seabird tragedy visit the blog of Alison Fogg in Cornwall In a walk on Monday 15 April she was horrified to discover over 157 dead birds on a short stretch of Cornish beach.

What is the scale of the incident?

So far we know hundreds birds have been affected. Over 400 dead birds have been collected from Cornish beaches, with more than 200 live birds affected. As of 16 April, 197 live birds had been taken to the RSPCA centre at West Hatch alone. However, we will probably never know the full extent of this incident as many of the birds are likely to be lost at sea. It is generally accepted that 3-10 times as many birds die at sea than are washed ashore in incidents like these. It appears that along with the increasing numbers of birds affected, the range of species affected, and locations where they have been found are also increasing.

Guillemots have been most affected, as 90% of the birds washed up have been this amber-listed bird of conservation concern. Other species involved have included puffins, razorbills, shags, cormorants, terns and gannets. It is thought many of these birds will be local breeding birds, indeed we know one of the dead gannets was a bird from the colony in Alderney, Channel Islands.

Guillemot: Bob Mitchell

What is causing this?

The deadly pollutant is the same as back in February, polyisobutene (PIB), which is used for a wide range of purposes, from fuel additives to chewing gum. As before, there is no indication as to the source of this pollution. Despite its lethal effect on seabirds, under international marine pollution regulations (The MARPOL Convention) it is perfectly legal to discharge certain amounts of PIB into our marine environment when vessels wash out their tanks.

Guillemot: Ian McCarthy

What next?

RSPB staff and volunteers are undertaking an emergency survey of beaches in the affected area to record any dead birds (and pass details of live birds to RSPCA).

The RSPB has written to the International Maritime Organisation asking for a review of this position and is also raising this issue with the government. We believe that the risks to the marine environment from PIB are underestimated, and that we simply do not know how much PIB is regularly released into the sea in legal discharges. As such, we believe that until we can prove PIB is safe, it should be reclassified to prohibit its discharge.

Longer term, the key to mitigating the impact of incidents like this is a healthy population in the first place, so the future of a species is not significantly impaired by one-off disasters. One of the best ways to build resilience into our marine wildlife is a well-connected network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

MPAs will not stop individuals caught in a disaster from dying, but they provide a healthy reservoir to allow the population to recover. It is therefore disappointing that the current proposals for English Marine Conservation Zones proposed by the government for implementation in 2013 are so inadequate, as criticised last week by the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee. Not only are there not enough sites proposed (only 31 of the 127 agreed and recommended by stakeholders), but they will also be protecting fewer habitats and species in many cases. Mobile species in particular are poorly accounted for in the 31 sites proposed, and not a single one of those sites currently includes seabirds as protected species.

What do I do if I find an affected bird?

If you find an affected live bird, we advise you not to touch it, as we do not know how hazardous the contaminant may be. Also, a stressed bird is difficult to catch, so you may unintentionally cause it further distress and it may escape back to sea untreated. If you find any affected live birds, please contact the RSPCA (call 0300 1234 999). If you find a dead bird, please report it to the RSPB on 01392 432691.

Acknowledgements

This is a very distressing event, and we applaud the RSPCA, South Devon Seabird Trust, Cornwall and Devon Wildlife Trusts, BTO and of course all the volunteers who are working to help resolve the situation.

Cliffe Pools – nature magnet

Andre Farrar — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 08:27:43 GMT

Press reports have picked up on the abundance of birds that called RSPB Cliffe Pools nature reserve home this winter. Over 10,000 black-tailed godwits (like the three in the picture below) have been setting records for this North Kent coastal wetland which is threatened by a proposal to build a four-runway hub airport on the Thames Estuary. For these godwits international travel is their route to survival – these birds will be heading north to nest in Iceland. Loss of wetlands along their...(read more)

Where's wigeon

Tim Webb — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:01:15 GMT

Can you spot the wigeon in this image of 10,000 black-tailed godwits?

No neither could I, but if there is one, it would have been identified by one of our keen eyed volunteers who used this image to count how many birds were in the giant flock.

This picture is amazing, not just because of the size of the flock, which is roughly a third of the UK's entire population of BT godwits, but because it's a few miles from the centre of London, concentrated on our Cliffe Pools nature reserve.

Much work has been put into creating the right sort of habitat at Cliffe, where wildlife can flourish, but this gobsmacking sight was not the aim. We don't want such large numbers of single species. We want them spread across the whole of the Thames estuary as they used to be. The sad fact is that they've congregated here probably because they could no longer find the right sort of habitats elsewhere. Don't get me wrong. It's an amazing spectacle and well worth the short-trip out to Cliffe to see. But, wouldn't it be better for them and us if there was more space for them along the length of the Thames?

Cliffe is also hosting hundreds of other species right now: 1,400 teal, 3,000 lapwing, 4,500 wigeon, and 8,000 dunlin; and that's just the birds.

The pools, mudflats and marshes of the Thames estuary are unique and prized. They are crucial for the survival of migratory birds and yet the spaces they favour are shrinking. Cliffe is a gem, but we're working hard with farmers, landowners, communities and businesses to ensure the whole estuary can better support nature. It's a win-win situation. The wildlife that's lived here for centuries will continue to survive, and the spaces they favour will continue to act as flood buffers protecting homes and businesses from more frequent storm surges.

Some see the estuary as an empty space that's of no value. They, like King Canute, would look to control tides and nature. Hopefully the sight of these black tailed godwits will spring their eyes open wide to see the world in all its mystery, power and beauty. The estuary is natures' home and we are privileged to be able to share it and must learn how to be good custodians; living, working and benefiting in harmony with its rhythms.