If asked about any living being in conection with sea, we probably speak about fishes, crabs, whales or octopus but, maybe, will forget about birds. Oh, yes! Gulls! Yes, not only gulls, but many other that depend on the sea environment as cormorants, gannets, petrels, terns…

Even, we could think the populations of those birds are in a relative good status of conservation, that the main endangered are raptor as the Lammergier or the Imperial Eagle. Unfortunately things are not like this. Sea birds are the group of birds that have experimented a bigger population decrease, specially serius since the last years. Causes come by fishery politics and methods unsustainable that don´t guarantee the safety for birds, as well as all kind of pollution (quimics, petrol, light…), destruction of breeding continental areas, deliberated or not introduction of predators or competitors (as cats or rats), etc.

Evolution of the number of species included in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Birds. Source: BirdLife.

When winter comes to mediterranean latitudes, we can see the Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) in groups more or less close to the coastline and looking for food. This bird only breeds in few cliffs at the Balearic Islands and is declareted in the higest endangered level by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), higest even than the Lammergeir or the Imperial Eagle. Is a category for birds in “extreme danger of extinction”, what means in current conditions that the species will be extinguished in three more generations of these birds. And when it will dissapear, it will be forever gone. The responsability, as ever, will be of our uncapability to make compatible human activity and sea birds survival (and by extension, of the planet), something not easy to achieve.

Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus). Picture: Hnos. Santamaría.

In the last years a group of enthusiastic ornithologists are putting efforts together to know more about the species that usually come to the spanish coasts and the evolution of their populations by census of marine birds along the country.
Balearic Shearwater is one of the birds we pay more attention in these observations by its endangered situation. With our results still cannot be determined how is evoluting the species, but we have no evidence of any increase that could bring some hope.

There are so many endangered marine birds species, included inside this loose of biodiversity, that means a loose of future for all the inhabitants of this planet.

More information | Red List of Birds in Spain. PDF version
More information | Wintering sea birds at Valencia Community census. (2002-2006)
More information | Wintering sea birds at Valencia Community census. (2008)