Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Puffins Fill up Nesting Islands This Year Despite Challenges
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
August 5, 2019

Share

PORTLAND, Maine — One of the most beloved birds in Maine is having one of its most productive seasons for mating pairs in years on remote islands off the state’s coast.
Atlantic puffins, with their colorful beaks and waddling walks, are one of New England’s best recognized seabirds. Maine is the only state in the U.S. where the birds breed, and they do so on hard-to-reach places like Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge in the Gulf of Maine, a body of water that touches New England and Canada.
The birds are well on their way to setting a record for the number of breeding pairs, said National Audubon Society scientist Stephen Kress, who has studied the birds for years. Kress said nearly 750 pairs nested on Seal Island and Eastern Egg Rock in 2018, and this year’s number will likely be higher.
The birds are thriving due to multiple factors, including an abundance of the type of fish they’re best suited to eat, such as young haddock and hake and herring. In some previous years, the birds have suffered because those fish were less available, replaced by fish that are more difficult for them to digest. The appearance of the more ideal fish could have to do with the Gulf of Maine running somewhat cool recently.

Atlantic Puffins Listed as Vulnerable

A lot of puffins also laid eggs slightly early this year, which suggests the parents are in good condition, Kress said. He cautioned that the birds’ breeding success has fluctuated in the past, so this year’s good news might not be evidence of a long-term trend.

“This is a good year. But I think the message really is this — in recent years, especially since the big heat wave of ’12 and ’13, we’ve seen a pattern of good year alternating with not so good year.” — National Audubon Society scientist Stephen Kress
“This is a good year. But I think the message really is this — in recent years, especially since the big heat wave of ’12 and ’13, we’ve seen a pattern of good year alternating with not so good year,” Kress said. “We’re very much in a system of a roller coaster as far as the puffins go.”
Atlantic puffins are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and they number about 1,300 pairs in Maine. The birds live on both sides of the northern Atlantic Ocean, and face threats such as warming ocean temperatures, fluctuations in food availability and predators.
The largest puffin colony in the Gulf of Maine is on Machias Seal Island, a disputed island on the U.S.-Canada water border that is home to 5,000 to 6,000 pairs. Those birds are also having a successful year, said Heather Major, associate professor in the biological sciences department at the University of New Brunswick in Canada.

Fishermen Sue to Overturn Creation of Monument

The birds can suffer when waters warm and squid and butterfish, which aren’t good puffin food, dominate local waters, Major said. But the Gulf of Maine is a little cooler than last year, and good prey has been abundant, she said. The island is around its long-term average of 56% of eggs producing a successful chick, Major said.
“There were lots of puffins around this year,” she said. “This year it seems more stable.”
The puffins of Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge are the subject of a popular “puffin cam” hosted by Explore.org, said Keenan Yakola, Seal Island supervisor for Audubon, who helps maintain the camera.
Environmental groups have made the case recently that Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which former President Barack Obama designated in 2016, is important to the survival of the puffins. Fishermen have sued to overturn the creation of the monument, which they believe creates an unfair hardship in the form of fishing restrictions.
But Audubon and other environmental groups have said the monument, which creates a protected area off New England, provides birds with a reliable food source.
“Having that area that they are known to use in a protected condition is certainly a plus for the puffins,” said Peter Shelley, senior counsel with Conservation Law Foundation.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

World’s Largest Almond Processor Will Shutter Sacramento Plant. 600 Workers Impacted

DON'T MISS

Trump Eyes Major Funding Cuts for California, Including All Public Universities

DON'T MISS

Farming Regulation Costs Rise 1,300% Since 2006: Cal Poly

DON'T MISS

Southern California Air Regulators Weigh a Plan to Phase Out Gas Furnaces and Water Heaters

DON'T MISS

US Supreme Court Allows DOGE Broad Access to Social Security Data

DON'T MISS

Doctors Were Preparing to Remove Their Organs. Then They Woke Up.

DON'T MISS

Abrego Garcia Is Returned to US From El Salvador

DON'T MISS

Proud Boys Convicted in Jan. 6 Attack Sue Government on Claims of ‘Political Persecution’

DON'T MISS

FDA’s AI Assistant ‘Elsa’ Fails Its First Day on the Job

DON'T MISS

Documentary Series Goes Inside Trump’s Bubble

UP NEXT

FDA’s AI Assistant ‘Elsa’ Fails Its First Day on the Job

UP NEXT

8 Ways Musk and Trump Could Inflict Pain on Each Other

UP NEXT

D-Day Veterans Return to Normandy to Mark 81st Anniversary of Landings

UP NEXT

Lambda Legal, a Nonprofit Supporting LGBTQ+ Rights, Exceeded Fundraising Goal by $105M

UP NEXT

Wondrous Webster Has the Makings of a Wonderful Family Member

UP NEXT

Trump Threatens Musk’s Government Deals as Feud Explodes Over Tax-Cut Bill

UP NEXT

Fresno Animal Center to Offer Free Adoptions for California Adopt-a-Pet Day

UP NEXT

Trump Amplifies Outlandish Robot Biden Conspiracy Theory

UP NEXT

American Doctors Are Moving to Canada To Escape the Trump Administration

UP NEXT

General Is a Good Boy — in English and Spanish

Southern California Air Regulators Weigh a Plan to Phase Out Gas Furnaces and Water Heaters

13 hours ago

US Supreme Court Allows DOGE Broad Access to Social Security Data

13 hours ago

Doctors Were Preparing to Remove Their Organs. Then They Woke Up.

13 hours ago

Abrego Garcia Is Returned to US From El Salvador

13 hours ago

Proud Boys Convicted in Jan. 6 Attack Sue Government on Claims of ‘Political Persecution’

14 hours ago

FDA’s AI Assistant ‘Elsa’ Fails Its First Day on the Job

14 hours ago

Documentary Series Goes Inside Trump’s Bubble

14 hours ago

Tulare County Gang Member Convicted of Trying to a Murder Police Officer

14 hours ago

Newsom Promises Funding to Jump-Start ‘Science of Reading’

15 hours ago

Feds Indict SoCal Hospice CEO for Medicare Fraud in Fresno and Kern Counties

15 hours ago

World’s Largest Almond Processor Will Shutter Sacramento Plant. 600 Workers Impacted

The world’s largest almond processor, Blue Diamond Growers, says it will close its Sacramento processing plant this year The almond co...

11 hours ago

11 hours ago

World’s Largest Almond Processor Will Shutter Sacramento Plant. 600 Workers Impacted

13 hours ago

Trump Eyes Major Funding Cuts for California, Including All Public Universities

13 hours ago

Farming Regulation Costs Rise 1,300% Since 2006: Cal Poly

14 hours ago

Southern California Air Regulators Weigh a Plan to Phase Out Gas Furnaces and Water Heaters

14 hours ago

US Supreme Court Allows DOGE Broad Access to Social Security Data

14 hours ago

Doctors Were Preparing to Remove Their Organs. Then They Woke Up.

14 hours ago

Abrego Garcia Is Returned to US From El Salvador

15 hours ago

Proud Boys Convicted in Jan. 6 Attack Sue Government on Claims of ‘Political Persecution’

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend