Hi, I am the RSPB Marine Conservation Officer for the North West of England, and it is my job to help protect seabirds and wading birds in the Irish Sea (from the Solway down to the Dee Estuary). At the moment I am spending my days fighting for Marine Protection Areas that give seabirds the protection they need at sea.
Out of all birds, I find seabirds the most fascinating. Some live incredibly dangerous lives – take the puffin for example, a tiny bird not much taller than a 30cm ruler, who will spend up to 9 months of the year out on the sea. It only comes onto land once a year to lay an egg and rear its chick- I doubt that they would ever touch land at all if not for this purpose! Then there is the fulmar, a soft, elegant looking bird with a wicked defence mechanism - it will spit fish-smelling oil at any predators (or unwitting seabirds) in order to protect its chicks.
As you may know, we have seen a big drop in tern numbers at Hodbarrow in recent years, with little terns no longer breeding on site, and sandwich tern declines of 50%.There are several reasons for this such as a lack of food. These trends are reflected nationally with many tern colonies all over the country now in population decline. Other seabirds species, such as the kittiwake, are experiencing continually bad breeding seasons - in their worst year so far, three out of four kittiwake nests failed to fledge any young.
We fought for ten years to get the Marine and Coastal Access Act, which was passed in 2009. At the moment less than 0.1% of the UK’s waters are protected from all damaging activities and there is an urgent need for the development of a network of Marine Protected Areas. This process is underway but unfortunately the needs of some of our most precious sealife, in particular seabirds, are being ignored.
Over the last few months, we have been urging people to step up for seabirds and sign our marine petition. This pledge is aimed at ensuring that seabirds have the same protection at sea that they currently enjoy on land. The Marine pledge is due to be handed in November in England and Wales – which gives us little more than 10 weeks to collect as many signatures as possible - The more signatures we collect, the more pressure it will put on the Government to step up for seabirds.
Please take a moment to click on the following link and add your voice to ours: www.rspb.org.uk/marinepetition
What you can also do to help:
For further information about the campaign, or to request paper copies of the petition leaflet for distribution, please contact me on: clare.reed@rspb.org.uk
Thank you for your support.
Clare Reed, RSPB Marine Conservation Officer (North West)
Norman Holton, senior site manager.