Fersiwn Gymraeg ar gael yma
Habitats in Wales are vital for seabirds - protecting their vulnerable nesting colonies from predators through biosecurity is one way of ensuring they don’t disappear.
Every spring our islands and cliffs come to life with the sounds and smells of hundreds of thousands of returning seabirds, with several of Wales’ offshore islands being globally important for these iconic species. Indeed, Wales remains the most important country in the world for breeding Manx Shearwater, with over half of the global population nesting in underground burrows on our islands. The fourth largest gannetry in the world can be found on RSPB Grassholm island, with Wales also being home to the largest Arctic Tern colony in the UK, located on the lower lying Skerries, an islet off the coast of Anglesey.
Seabirds are a key indicator of the overall health of marine ecosystems. However, seabird populations globally are declining faster than any other bird group, and sadly, threats to these species are increasing. These include climate change impacts, entanglement in fishing gear, disturbance, inappropriate developments, loss of habitat and predators.
In Wales, a recent review of breeding seabirds, undertaken by the RSPB on behalf of Natural Resources Wales, the British Trust for Ornithology, and the Welsh Ornithological Society, saw Gannets added to the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern Wales (BoCCW) for the first time. In parallel, publication of a seabird update to the Birds of Conservation Concern UK report saw five new species of seabird, including Arctic Tern and Great Black-backed Gull, added to the UK Red List. We should be profoundly concerned about the ever-expanding size of the Red List.
The role of biosecurity in protecting seabirds
Biosecurity is the practice of protecting important wildlife and the places that support them from the threats posed by new diseases, invasive plants or animals that do not naturally occur there. Coordinated and robust biosecurity is an essential part of protecting Wales’ seabirds, helping to improve the resilience of their populations in the face of escalating pressures. More than half of Wales’ breeding seabirds are dependent on islands with an absence of rats because seabirds nest in or on the ground, or on cliffs that rats or other mammalian predators can access. However, the accidental introduction of predators to an island is easily done. If predators were to become established in these locations, the impact on these breeding populations would be devastating.
Just one pregnant female brown rat can wreak havoc on a seabird island, producing a colony of 300 rats in just over eight months. Seabirds have not evolved to defend themselves from these skilled hunters, and invasive predators can quickly decimate breeding colonies by eating eggs, chicks, and adult birds. For example, the population of Puffins on Ramsey Island in Pembrokeshire was decimated by rats in the 19th and 20th century. Eradication and conservation efforts by the RSPB have seen a great recovery of other species, such as the Manx Shearwater, whose population increased from a few hundred pairs in 2000 to over 6,000 pairs by 2022 after the eradication of rats. However, Puffins have yet to come back to the site. It is, therefore, vitally important to stop invasive non-native mammalian predators reaching Wales’ seabird islands in the first place.
The threats to these most important sites are ever present, as highlighted by incidents of shipwrecks on Skokholm earlier this year and off Skomer in December 2022. The Biosecurity for Wales team assisted the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales in the emergency response that followed both events, to establish whether rats had made their way onto the seabird islands. Thankfully, in these instances they had not.
Biosecurity for Wales
The Biosecurity for Wales team includes a lead and supporting Biosecurity Officer, trained surveillance volunteers, members of the Wales Biosecurity Forum, Jinx - a Conservation Detection Dog (CDD) and a handler. The use of a CDD is a new tool to protect seabird islands in Wales. Their use is growing in the UK, but Jinx is one of only a few that are trained specifically to detect rats to assist with biosecurity projects.
This experienced group manage, coordinate and support the delivery of effective biosecurity for all of Wales’ most important seabird islands. The work encompasses a range of specialist activities which include surveillance and monitoring, responding to suspected or confirmed incursions of rats onto islands, raising awareness of biosecurity among stakeholders, boat operators and the public, supporting the production of Island Biosecurity Plans and ensuring they are being implemented effectively.
A commitment is needed to ongoing biosecurity
Despite the obvious need for this protection to be in place, when the current funding for Biosecurity for Wales ends in March 2025, there is no provision to maintain the activities and outputs of the project beyond this date. As a result, coordinated Welsh island biosecurity is likely to end, putting critical seabird populations at risk and potentially resulting in the need for expensive eradications, as is currently the case on Puffin Island, Anglesey, where a large population of rats established.
Work to eradicate rats from Puffin Island took place over the winter of 2023 and 2024, however, there were still signs of their presence towards the end of the eradication period. As a result, further effort is required to eradicate the remaining rats and ongoing monitoring will also be required to evaluate the effectiveness of the work. Current estimates of costs of the eradication, when volunteer time and the use of Biosecurity for Wales resources are factored in, are in excess of £100,000.00. Island eradication programmes are typically considerably more expensive than this, for example the £4.5million required to restore biosecurity on Rathlin Island (Northern Ireland) to protect seabirds. The lessons from Puffin Island and elsewhere show that investing in effective prevention is much more cost-effective than having to deal with an incursion, as eradications require large amounts of resources, both people and money.
We welcome the commitment by the Welsh Government to publish a Welsh Seabird Conservation Strategy. It is vital that the plan is brought forward at the earliest opportunity, with dedicated funding available for identified actions, which must include the provision of in-perpetuity biosecurity for Welsh seabird islands.
If we are to meet Wales’ statutory biodiversity commitments and improve the resilience and secure the future of our globally important populations of seabirds, we must ensure that safe breeding sites are provided for these iconic species. We are at a critical time and urgency of action for seabirds is paramount. We will continue to be a voice for nature, advocating for legislation and policies that are both ambitious and robust and drive the range of actions needed to protect our vulnerable seabirds.
Author bio
Rowenna Haines is Senior Marine Policy Officer for RSPB Cymru (Maternity Cover). Rowena champions the policies, plans and actions that our seabirds need to enable their populations to thrive - these include development of a Wales Seabird Strategy, protection and good management of marine protected areas for seabirds and their forage species, resourcing of biosecurity measures to safeguard breeding colonies and strategic, spatial planning to ensure that marine development is in harmony with nature.