UK shores & seas are home to amazing wildlife, including around 8 million globally important seabirds. Find out what we’re doing to protect them.
Seabirds are the most threatened bird group in the world, and our UK seabird populations are in a dire state. The latest seabird census revealed that a shocking 62% of UK seabird species are in decline and they are also failing to meet the Good Environmental Status target under the UK Marine Strategy. Seabirds are a key indicator of the state of our overall marine environment.
The recently updated Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC) paper, incorporating the impacts of avian influenza, revealed the largest ever increase in the number of Red-listed seabird species. The UK is home to globally important seabird populations; therefore, we have an international responsibility to do everything we can to protect these iconic species.
There are multiple, compounding threats that are causing these declines in seabird populations. These include:
Key prey food, such as Sandeel, Sprat and Herring are being impacted by overfishing and climate change.
It is estimated that thousands of seabirds like Fulmars and Guillemots die each year in UK waters after being caught on fishing hooks, entangled in nets or wrapped up in ropes.
Poorly placed windfarms can seriously harm birds, through collision or more indirectly by reducing access to feeding areas.
The accidental or intentional introduction of predators such as rats, mustelids and cats on islands devastates breeding colonies.
Increasing storms, heatwaves and habitat loss are pushing birds to the brink.
Visitors travelling to islands, coasts and estuaries can disturb seabirds during the breeding season, while Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has had a devastating impact on seabirds like Gannets and Great Skuas.
We’re at risk of losing some seabird species in just a few decades. Be part of the team tackling their biggest threats.
In response to all these pressures, it is crucial that the UK takes the right actions and provides safe places for our internationally important seabird populations to feed, breed, survive and thrive. We’re tackling the crisis with a range of targeted actions:
The impacts of commercial fishing are among the top threats seabirds face in the UK. Advocating for an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management should help to ensure a plentiful food supply for seabirds and tackle seabird bycatch.
Our policy team aims to inform and influence the government to address seabird bycatch through effective vessel monitoring and the trialling and rollout of bycatch mitigation measures.
We know bycatch mitigation can be successful. Work by the Albatross Task Force (BirdLife International and RSPB) has led to a 99% reduction in Albatross deaths caused by longliners in South Africa, and mitigation measures applied in the Filey Bay sea-trout gillnet fishery led to a dramatic reduction in seabird bycatch from approximately 700 deaths to just 4-5 per year.
We also advocate for UK fisheries to be managed in a way that takes account of the whole ecosystem and addresses impacts on key seabird food sources, like sandeels, to ensure a plentiful food supply for UK seabirds.
Sandeels are a crucial food source for seabirds and other marine life, such as seals and whales.
Decades of RSPB campaigning, with the support of thousands of members and allies, secured the closure of the English North Sea and all Scottish waters to industrial sandeel fishing in 2024. This was a vital step in protecting declining seabird populations, like Kittiwakes, Razorbills and Puffins.
These closures were later upheld by an international Arbitration Panel, following an EU challenge, which agreed the case was ecologically sound and the science was undeniable.
Beccy Speight, RSPB CEO, celebrated the ruling, calling it a “key piece of the jigsaw for seabird recovery”. This decision offers hope, but more action is needed to tackle other threats such as bycatch, climate change and offshore developments.
Discover more about the history of our work in sandeel fishing and what this means for the future of threatened seabirds.
We fully support the need to build more clean energy, including offshore wind. However, new offshore wind developments must be deployed with due consideration given to nature and avoid negative impacts on seabird populations.
The best way to transition to clean energy and help nature recover is for the UK government and agencies to develop clear and strategic marine spatial planning. It should make sure new developments avoid harming wildlife, give seabirds and other species the space they need, and carefully balance the growth of renewable energy with protecting nature.
Where impacts cannot be avoided, developers should provide strategic compensation that fully makes up for the loss. These measures should protect seabirds and the wider marine environment. Where possible, they should also seek to support and catalyse nature’s recovery.
Our policy team works hard to ensure offshore wind development delivers the best outcomes for our seabirds.
Find out how offshore wind development could help tackle the nature and climate crisis.
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a key focus for the RSPB. MPAs are designated to protect and restore marine species and habitats, safeguard vulnerable species, and provide a wider interconnected network of areas that species, and indeed the wider ecosystem, need to function and survive. The UK’s MPA network is not yet complete for seabirds and we are pushing for effective management. This includes a need for governments to deliver a proper review of how our network is delivering for seabirds, including carrying out a Special Protection Area (SPA) sufficiency review to fill gaps and ensure the best possible management of these critical areas for seabirds.
We’re calling for better protection of blue carbon habitats like seagrass, saltmarsh and sediments. For our rapidly declining populations of seabirds, protecting and effectively managing pressures on blue carbon habitats helps provide biodiverse and resilient ecosystems for them to thrive. This also protects habitats that support key forage fish species and contributes to tackling the threat of climate change.
We’re calling for funding for a rolling programme of biosecurity, eradication, and control to prevent and tackle the presence of invasive, non-native mammals like rats and ferrets on seabird islands and to protect mainland ground-nesting seabirds. We’re also involved in undertaking large-scale restoration projects at some key seabird sites, for example, see our work on rat and ferret eradication on Rathlin Island.
We're carrying out habitat management, restoration and creation to alleviate losses from climate change and provide safe nesting areas for ground-nesting seabirds. We’re taking action to address the disturbance of seabirds resulting from an increase in coastal recreation and tourism. For example, see our LIFE on the Edge project in partnership with National Trust.
Once home to 80,000 seabirds, Lundy Island (Bristol Channel, Devon) saw numbers plummet to just 7,000 in the year 2000, with Puffins close to local extinction. In response, a partnership between the RSPB, Natural England, the Landmark Trust, and the National Trust launched a restoration project.
Knowing that Manx Shearwaters and Puffins nest on the ground, they identified invasive rats as a key threat. A considered conservation method led to successful eradication and the island was declared rat-free in 2006. Today, over 40,000 seabirds thrive on Lundy, including 25,000 Manx Shearwater and 1,335 Puffins. The island now hosts 95% of England’s breeding Manx Shearwaters.
This remarkable comeback shows that targeted and collaborative partnerships can positively drive recovery. However, this vital seabird haven remains unprotected in our MPA network. We must ensure safe places for seabirds are protected from future declines.
Find out how we're helping seabirds on Lundy Island.
Your donation will support the RSPB’s Marine Recovery Programme, a bold and ambitious programme of work to put our seabirds and marine life on track for recovery.
