Report from the seabird monitoring in Norway in 2021
The SEAPOP annual report for 2021 from the key-site monitoring presents the status of key seabird species on a wide spatial scale.
Moderate breeding success
Despite a higher reproduction rate in the colonies in 2021 compared to the previous year for most of the species monitored by SEAPOP, the overall breeding success was still only moderate across areas and species. This is highlighted in the SEAPOP Short Report “Key-site monitoring in Norway 2021, including Svalbard and Jan Mayen”, which is now published. For black-legged kittiwakes and northern fulmars in particular, 2021 was a poor breeding season.
Negative population trends
Equally disturbing is the fact that most populations continue to decrease in size. In the colonies in the Barents Sea, the pelagic species, such as Brünnich’s guillemot, black-legged kittiwake and northern fulmar, are those decreasing most in numbers, whereas the strongest decline in the Norwegian Sea was among the coastal species, particularly gulls and shags. The most positive signals came from Spitsbergen and colonies in the North Sea where several species increased in numbers and reproduced well.
Read the report:
Contact person: Tycho Anker-Nilssen, NINA
Photo © Nina Dehnhard