MIGRATORY SEABIRDS MONITORING

The oceans cover more than 70% of the earth’s surface. Seabirds – specialised in this environment – usually breed on islets or in coastal areas and forage in the open ocean or littoral areas. As marine productivity changes with the seasons, these birds make large movements following the nutrient flows of the sea. In fact, seabirds include some of the most spectacular migrants on the planet, such as the Arctic tern and the Cory’s shearwater, which can travel more than 20,000 km annually.

Seabirds are an excellent bio-indicator of the state of the seas and oceans, being particularly sensitive to problems of overfishing, pollution or accidental capture. Some of these species are the most threatened birds on the planet and are in global decline.

Different regulations and conservation agreements require reporting on the status of these bird populations, as well as on the actions carried out to conserve them.

In order to assess their status, it is essential to know in as much detail as possible the distribution and size of the populations, both breeding and migratory, as well as their trends through medium and long-term monitoring.

This project, developed by Birding Canarias with the support of the Canarina Foundation, aims to collect and provide data that will enable the environmental status of migratory seabirds in the waters of the Canary Islands to be assessed, using the Punta de Buenavista del Norte lighthouse in Tenerife as a reference point. Data will be collected during the post-nuptial migration period, between August and November 2024.