Scottish puffin population starving in climate change

Worst to come<

When your wimp council people, give D. Trump the go ahead, to tear up another piece of Scotland for more profit for Trump.

The SNP are really smart idiots,

GC

And, of course, it has nothing to do with certain European countries ripping the sand eels out of the sea by the ton, to supply fish meal factories in Europe.

It has to be global warming, nobody could possibly blame the CFP.

#1 Galactic Cornball. These mushrooms are doing your brain cells in.

# 2 Guga II twice in one night, I agree with you

#2 could not agree more. Basic nature dictates that when you take away a staple food out of the chain alll dependents suffer.

As well as puffins dying. In moray sound porpoises are dying due to malnutrition. Guess why? 70% of their diet is made up of sand ell.

when you hoover the out bye the ton, and they take 3-5 years to reach breeding maturity. It's no wonder indiscrimate rape of the sand is too blame.

My fear for the salmon farming industry is that they are actively attempting to put everything down too global warming. Ignoring their rather alrger part to play.

Appologies! I suffer from dyslexic fingers...............

should read!

#2 I could not agree more. Basic nature dictates that when you take away a staple food out of the chain all dependents suffer.

As well as puffins dying. In moray sound, porpoises are dying due to malnutrition. Guess why? 70% of their diet is made up of sand eel.

when you hoover them out bye the ton, and they take 3-5 years to reach breeding maturity. It's no wonder indiscrimate rape of the sand is too blame.

My fear for the salmon farming industry is that they are actively attempting to put everything down too global warming. Ignoring their rather larger part to play.

Tell the E U To G T F and let`s get back to how we were.This lot have ripped not only the sand eels out but all the fish.When we signed up in 1972 it was the common market not this monster who invades our shores and tells us what to do.Let`s get out now ,even our birdlife is suffering for the mistakes of Ted Heath and co.

The population of the Puffin Colony being studied which is mainly on Dun just off Hirta has been fluctuating ever since SNH started counting. More alarmist data from Quangos with vested interests.

This is one where fast, decisive action by
government could produce results.

The big charities have been calling on the government to act over the culpable mismanagement of the seas around our shores, but pleas have thus far fallen on dear ears.

No instant political capital to be made, you see.
No immediately obvious shambles visible to voters.

We are an island, dependent on the sea, yet we have virtually no legislation to protect it.

Action NOW please, Mr.Brown & co.
First off, in the short term, an immediate ban on fishing sand eels.
Then, let's see a coherent plan for legislation to protect the seas.

Get on to your MPs and your MSPs folks - DEMAND action!

#10 sorry, that's "deaf ears"!

Well said Guga II - the EU has allowed the taking of over a million metric tonnes of sandeels from the North Sea, every year for over 25 years. At a conservative estimate that's 20 million tonnes of these tiny fish removed from the food chain. They are supposed to feed wild salmon, cod, haddock, puffins, kittiwakes and other birds and fish. The Danes processed them to make food pellets for farmed-salmon in Scotland, pig food (which is why your bacon tastes of fish) and central heating oil (believe it!)

You will notice that the RSPB, SNH and a host of wildlife NGOs make little reference to the sandeel fishery these days - in fact its a deafening silence. See there's no money or deal-making to be done if you focus on sandeels - because you would be fighting UK Govt, EU Govt and big, big business. Far better to blame it on 'Climate Change' and carry on cosying up to Brown and the EU. Don't make waves and keep getting the grants. In less than 30 years the EU has allowed the destruction and repeated crashing of: the sprat fishery in the Forth, the cod fishery, the herring fishery, the mackerel fishery on the West coast etc.
And they call this 'the common fisheries policy'. Climate change is happening; climate change has always been happening; it is the very nature of climate to change. The simple truth is you can't turn 20 million tonnes of sandeels into pig food and heating oil without wrecking all the ecosystems which depend on them. The silence of the conservation lobby is a complete bloody disgrace.

I refuse to purchase Danish bacon because of the above. Why don't consumers do their research?
Why does the government not enforce full details of our food chain to allow shoppers to better decide whether or not they wish to purchase a product?
Too many vested interests perhaps?
Eat british bacon scottish beef and keep away from things like so called Irish beef which is maninly Brazilian and destroys the rainforest.
Get off your obese arses and find out what is what and where it comes from and the true cost of so called cheaop food.

#14 Well said Tweedmouth.

When you disrupt the foodchain, especially with large-scale collecting, of course those on the food-chain are going to suffer. Except those at the top doing the collecting of course. Us!!

Too many mouths to feed. Perhaps we need to sterilise large parts of the human population, so that the populations of other species can grow?

These birds want to try the famous killie pie, my burd likes them regardless of the weather.

Read the story again numpties.

"They are not able to swallow the snake pipefish brought back from the North Sea by their parents because it is covered in a hard exo-skeleton."

The puffins in St Kilda are NOT fishing in the North Sea and pipefish are not that abundant around the St Kildan archipelago.

there is too much spin and hyperbole in the report to make me think it's hack reporting as the facts 2 paragraphs in are incorrect.

And Guga is correct, the CFP has a lot to answer for which makes me think Richard Lockhead is right to challange it and even see us leave it altogether and develop a home based fishing policy to suit Scottish fishermen and OUR fish resources.

The Danes, as it happens, suck thousands of tonnes of sand eels up as they have developed an industry around it, not our fisher boys and girls.

And one last point. The waters around here (the west coast Atlantic seaboard) are always several degrees WARMER than the North Sea, all year round due to the gulf stream influence.

With that in mind, how does that factor in with a surface rise of 2 degrees in the north sea (which still doen't reach the average temp here) and the effect on the same species of fish and the claim that a warmer North Sea is detrimental to the same species of fish that thrives in the warmer waters of the Atlantic?

This has been discussed at http://www.scotsgait.co.uk/component/option,com_fireboard... over the past couple of days.

In it, a call has been made for a "Scottish Society for the Protection of Birds". Perhaps that's not such a bad idea......

Spot on No. 14 (Tweedmouth), with your analysis of what is causing the devastation of our fishing stock. Our sea birds are now the latest victims of what can only be described as a criminal act by the Danes of removing vast and unsustainable quantities of the staple diet of sand eels from the environmental food chain. This is the main reason why our fish stocks which used to be the richest in Europe are no longer sustainable - this is the price we have paid in Scotland for the mistake of joining the EU Common Fisheries Policy. It is time we wrested control from the EU and had a Scots fishing policy to suit OUR fish resources.

This is a serious problem that is affecting our economy in lots of ways.
For the third year in a row we have had a late grilse run and a large proportion of the fish are thin and small. Grilse of less than 2 lbs are not uncommon and their value as breeding stock is questionable.
We need joined up thinking on fish harvesting and that means all aspects of the food chain.
Unfortunately our previous regime were clueless and the new King of Scotland seems too intent on scoring political capital rather than addressing issues that affect us all.
Save the sand eel!

I'm so glad to see so many posters pointing out the obvious effects of the Danish sand ell fishery and the deafening silence on this subject from various conservationists and the media. I couldn't agree more. To be fair, some parts of this article do obliquely mention the need for better marine management, etc. which is clearly unrelated to global warming.

One interesting thing I noted in the article was (in regard to the increase in snake pipefish) that "It is feared that this is another symptom of climate change," she said. "They have been extending their range southwards." I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, but a species moving from the colder north to the warmer south would not be an indication of warming but of cooling. The more logical explanation (IMHO) would be that the snake pipefish are moving southwards to fill the void left by the over-fished sand ell population.

Maybe the Danes could help out the poor old puffins and sand ells by fishing for snake pipefish instead!

I see the CFP and the Danes' hoovering of sand eels in industrial quantities have rightly been fingered for the dearth of these wee fish.

Puffins might like sand eels but personally I've nae liking for bacon that tastes of fish, I generally expect it to be porcine,(the same as I would expect Puffin to taste of Puffin) so I will not buy Danish.

Will our new government take notice of the peoples' consensus though?

It's not a fisheries problem as much as a consumer problem. Stop buying Danish bacon if you love puffins.
If children were aware that they were killing puffins by having bacon then most of them would refuse to eat it - they have more sense than their parents.

The above observations are overwhelmingly in agreement as regards the cause of this looming ecological disaster. For years I have been railing against the lunatic EU Common Fisheries Policy, which never had anything to do with management or conservation, but from the beginning was simply a legal tool of short-sighted national interests that were out for economic grabs.

I note that its stranglehold has been futher entrenched in the latest EU draft constitutional treaty by bracketing fisheries together with agriculture as a function to be administered "jointly" by the EU together with member states.

However, the cloven hoof comes to view in the neighbouring provision that the conservation of all marine biological resources is a function entirely reserved to the EU under the CFP. This, of course, effectively takes back the concession of "joint" control and reveals it to be no more than window-dressing.

In other words, the EU is proposing to regulate everything that swims, or merely lives, in the waters of the Baltic, North Sea, Eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean, Aegean, Adriatic and Black Sea from the desk of the Fisheries Commissioner in Brussels.

If this lunacy were serious policy it would fall within the realm of psychiatry. But the truth is that the CFP is no more than a politico-legal tool to provide economic interests with access to waters they would not normally be able to exploit. That is the whole purpose behind it.

The SNP, unfortunately, is simply pandering to this corruption with its naive and short-sighted EU policy. Fisheries Minister Richard Lochhead, to his credit, has shown a personal grasp of the situation, but until the SNP as a whole comes to terms with hard reality in its attitude towards the EU then the chain of suffering will extend right down to Scotland's puffins.

#26 "I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, but a species moving from the colder north to the warmer south would not be an indication of warming but of cooling"

Spot on I'd say. The NERC state that "climate change is unlikely to be the primary cause of the dramatic increase. " In their report on nthe increase in the snake pipefish population. I'd agree with you that it looks more like thet're filling an empty (or emptied) niche.

looking a bit further the several scientists from the EC's own research institute flagged this issue in the journal Marine Biology suggesting that it was a combination of rising sea temperatures in the N. Atlantic reducing their incubation time and decreased competition and increased prey outside their natural range.
I presume the EU politicians decided it was because of the former because hitting industries in member countries which were the cause of the latter didn't look like a popular vote winner and ascribing it to climate change avoids this.

I blame the SNP. Simple as that.

Dave from barra + Guga II

Well said. But puffins are only one of the many animals that suffer from the lack of sand eels. Most of the endangered fish around our waters eat sand eels, hell i have even eaten them myself( my granny used to fry them in butter and flour). We need out f the CFP and to stop the needless slaughter of this valuable food source around our shores. I think you will find that cod, haddock and stocks of other fish will make remarkable recoveries. When fishing for sand eels( i have it the past), you use a very fine mesh size. As they are an important part of the diet for most of the whitefish in our waters you find other species mixed with the sand eel shoals. The amount of other fish caught can be staggering, but these are dumped down the hold with the rest. Juvenile haddock and cod are classed as"pout". Stop the sand eel fishery and the other problems solve themselves.

Hang on a minute, people are going on about sand eels in the north sea. I do not recall St Kilda being in the North Sea!

Whilst yes, removal of sand eels has gone too far, north sea over fishing will not affect Atlantic puffins, which is where the warming sea's come in.

#20- the Scotsman is doing bad reporting again. I heard this story on Radio Scotland last night, and it was pretty straightforwards, and I do not recall it mentioning the North Sea.

#14 Tweedmouth : well said.
Some of the information you're giving I for one didn't know; thanks for a good post.

Come on then, RSPB, SNH, Wildlife Trusts - is what Tweedmouth says right?
Are you not keen to take on the British government & the EU, even when such action is needed? What's your line on the Danes and sandeels?
What does the Danish government say?
Where's our government?
Do we need some sort of nationally organised boycott of Danish bacon?

"Scotsman", can you do a follow-up of this story, asking some of these questions?
I intend to write to my MP & MSP's asking all of this.
Perhaps we all could?

38 Guthrie

Many fish shoals migrate between the north sea and the atlantic. many birds do also. The danish sandeel boats are not only found in the north sea but all round our coast, including St Kilda.

+39 Nell

This arguement has been going for nearly 20 years. I used to work on a sand eel boat (I was very young and did not understand what it was doing, just glad of a job) and have first hand knowledge of the destruction it causes. Banning this form of fishing is a must, and the ironic thing about it is it is not that profitable. They only do it while waiting for the herring and mackrel season to start. they would be no worse off if they just tied up for the season.

A year or two ago so-called conservationists such as Scottish Natural Heritage and the RSPB were condemning wildlife such as hedgehogs, rare black rats and brown rats for the decline in seabirds.

Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money was extracted from gullible politicions for an unprecedented program of killing
wildlife to allow seabirds to recover.

It now seems the only winners were the fake conservationists who seem to have had a nice little earner at our expense.

Angus #41

They were different sea birds. It is a fact that these animals were responsible for the decline in species such as the corncrake. Hedgehogs and rats are not native to the islands of the west coast. These birds are, and lay their eggs in the marram grass along the west coasts of the islands, easy pray for the invasive species. The only winners out of this programme were the native species to the isles. For a change.

I'd always thought St Kilda was in the Atlantic not the Southern North Sea: another EU gem!

Global warming is the excuse for everything. Personally, I think it has more to do with Danish fisheries taking sandeels from the Forth in industrial quantities for cattle feed.

Does anybody know if it is just possible to feed them in different way. When I have read this today it just made me cry. As all articles so far said the colony is growing so well but nobody the mention the chicks are dying of starvation. It must be a way to do something aboyt it.

I would also like to point out that the puffins population was kept in check or managed so to speak by the indigenous population as a food resource until the evacuation in 1930.

The population was never able to breed freely until after that time and it could, and I mean could, be possible that the population has actually become too large for it's environment.

This is alos coupled with the comments above re: CFP of course but remember, st kilda is a World Heritage Site and has a fishing embargo around it of several kilometers (it's actually 225km square with the island in the middle).

Interesting idea Dave, and might be a contributing factor just like many of the other issues mentioned. However, as usual where one of these is climate change then all else is forgotten by the media.

I have heard this story & similar ones for more than 10 years. So what have Government (Finnie until May) & the environmental NGOs done besides talk & set up committees & working groups to look into the situation. Sweet F.A. Talk,Talk, but no action, mainly due to govenment being frightened of upsetting the Fishermens organisations who thwart all efforts to set up closed areas (No Take Zones)to allow marine life incuding fish to regenarate.
The only organisation that are on the verge of making real progess are a small Island community group from Arran called C.O.A.S.T. check out their Web site www.arrancoast.co.uk If you really want to understand some of the issues. order the DVD they produced this year called "Caught in Time"
absolutly amazing. If you want healthy sustainable seas for fish & Birds politicians need to move fast.

Consumers would have to stop buying all farmed salmon, cod, trout, seabass and sea bream as well as Danish bacon if we're to make a difference.
I don't mind making a sacrifice for a cause like this, but it would have to be well organised in order to make a real impact.
All frozen fish including fish cakes and fish fingers etc should be checked also to see whether they contain farmed fish.
The real long-term solution though is for the SNP to gain control of Scottish fishing grounds and as stated above, expel all foreign vessels.

#49

To ban all foreign vessels, or to expell them as you say, is maybe going too far. But to allow them to fish under our jurisdiction and to answer to our courts if they do something wrong is the answer. Scottish boats also fish in the waters of other countries, it gives them the chance to follow shoals and to follow the 'seasons'. Fish are fickle creatures, they 'come on' in different areas and at different times. Its not just a case of scooping them up. Sometimes its in scottish waters, other times its norwegian or irish, so we allow each other to fish each others waters to create a balance. This hospitality is being abused by a few and we are powerless to do anything about it.

This is the most informative comment board I have ever read, The quality of your knowledge on every subject is incredable. and you Dave from Barra bring up some very good points, So may I say I like the way you defend your family and there privacy. may we have the same courtesy. as regards the Head of our family and those who support him.as it has been said the lowest servant in the Kingdom of God is higher than the highest servant on Earth. Apologise and no more will be said.. Two points that could have saved our enviroment. The Atom should never have been split and mans greed should never have been allowed to fester.

#51

What?

At no point on this comments board did Dave from Barra mention anything to do with anybodies family. He made good points in his posts about the relevent subject. he needs to apologise to nobody. Also mans greed is nowhere more obvious that in the church, and whoever said that about servants needs his head looked at. I am nobodies servant, and nobody is mine, whether on earth or anywhere else.

I was talking about Gods Servants in his Kigdom.And Dave had a nasty way of describing there apearance. I dont think you read his postings.and the other one Who called himseld. God in Heaven. The rules state you must not make remarks that offend others.I am sorry that God offends you, please accept my deepest apologies. It would seem you tar everyone with the same brush

Come on Dave own up. I owned up when I had you censored.I did not allow anyone else to be blamed. But then that is what God is all about.And I can assure you that the woman in Heaven have the same appearance as your wife or daughters would you like that said about them.

We did not dig up all the sand eels so are not responsible for the Puffins Plight

Good Night sweet things

53 Scully,

God does not offend me, no need to apologise to me. I have read many of Daves posts, some i agree with some not. but I usually find he knows his subject well, which can make you question your own point sometimes. He also likes a wind up and does not suffer fools gladly. If you are debating with him and your arguement is flawed in some way then surely it is his duty to inform you. And if you then feel it is he who has a flawed point would you not try to put him right. Afterall that is what these posts are for. But if you go into an arguement on the back of blind faith with no solid material to work with he will tear you to shreads. Blind faith holds no water with him. The other person, or entity, you mention i have never read their posts. Could even be the real deal for all I know, after all if he ever did make a post then why not in the scotsman. And who is to say that gods dont read the papers. Maybe they all do. I have no tar, or brush to tar with just a simple brain to think with. take that away and all i have is blind faith.

Scully,

you do not dig up sand eels, nobody does. they swim about. Never the less I think you are maybe going a bit mad with Dave, he is not even here. His last post was at 4.45pm. Give it a rest, nobody here has mentioned wives or daughters unless they are either a puffin or a sand eel. And this god stuff is ok, but both dave and I come from the hebrides and have had our fill of it thanks.

They are a confusion in many scientific analysis about the climat and i desagree whit them.Most scientific analysis about climat was based in a recent period not more two or three hundred years and, for exemple, this article speak about the climat change in Scotland in those years?!(i believ) the citation call"Over the past two decades,the surface temperature in the Southern North Sea has risen by 2 c",like this affirmation was proposed by most scientific to proof the climat change.I'm the only scientific in the world which disagree whit those affirmations and the reason is very simple.The sciences observations have prouved the univer was created last 5 milliard's years and it's not possible to speak about climat evolution only about the two last decad or the two last centhury.It's like to spea about the climat change because in the morning you have water and in the afternoon you have sun.All speach about the climat across the world was not scientific and not founded.I believ the sun have 5 milliard years and the earth a minimum of 5 millions years.
I have read since years a go a good book about St-Kilda isle and his last habitant.

Please if you have comments adout my article send me directly your comments in my box at needjar@yahoo.fr because it's the time when i go to sleep .

Overfishing, greedy fishermen, seafood cemetries in Supermarket, pollution are more likely to blame for killing off bird and sealife.

Everything these days is blame Climate Change with no factual stats.

The main problem is the gulf stream switch off. We won't fry, but we would be plunged into an ice age.

No doubt some hack will say that's climate change too.

Foreign fishing vessels have been hoovering up massive quantities of fish around the UK for years. I had relations in Teignmouth and many years ago we could take the dinghy, go out for half an hour or so and get a feed of Mackerel. That all changed back in the 70s but we could see the foreign trawlers just offshore decimating the fish stocks.
It's time the government put a stop to it but I doubt if they have the guts to do anything.
In this part of the world we have the Japs killing whales for 'research' but the meat is on sale in Japanese shops. Again, nobody has the backbone to stop them.

60 + 61

I wish people would actually know what they were talking about before they post. Most of the posts here are by people with knowledge of the subject, then along you come spouting your rubbish and it becomes a waste of time.

60
that is what we are saying. it is over fishing, we agree, but of particular species, not just a random blurt that any hippy could come up with. and yes the gulf stream will be affected by global warming, what ever the cause.

61
Scotland has the largest and most modern fishing fleet in the eu. It also has the largest waters in the eu. When you say foreign vessels do you mean scottish boats. The pollution pouring into the north sea from the tyne would also have rendered any fish, mackrel included, totally inedible, so maybe it is just as well these foreign boats hoovered up these fish before you caught them in your dingy. It saved you from a nasty spell in the toilet.

62
You obviously think you know what you are talking about but it would be helpful if you noted that the Tyne does not flow anywhere near Teignmouth. When I last looked at a map it was up in Geordieland but then you are so clever you probably moved it south. According to locals the foreign vessels were Spanish.

"ALGORE" LOVES CONSENSUS. SOUNDS TO ME THE CONSENSUS HERE IS THAT THE SAND EEL POPULATION HAS BEEN FISHED OUT -- WHOEVER DID IT. CLEARLY THAT IS WHAT THE PUFFIN'S PROBLEM IS, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE! IT IS IMPROPER CONTROL OF OVER FISHING OF SAND EELS AND OTHER SPECIES BY YOUR GOVERNMENT! WE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH ATLANTIC COD FISH OFF THE EAST COAST OF N. AMERICA UNTIL THE GOV'T REGULATED IT. NOW THEY ARE BACK.