2014
was the worst year for bird breeding on Skomer,Island.
One
school of thought places the blame on the winter storms,but fails to
take historic factors into account..
Returning
birds down by a half , only a quarter of those nesting reared one
chick.
Only
half of these will survive leaving the island for the open sea.
Overfishing
is one of the important reasons,factory fishing of sand eels for
fertiliser pet food and as food for salmon farming,leaving only
species such as pipefish with little food value for the birds to
feed their young.
Acidification
of seawater by increased atmospheric carbon dioxide a very small
change in the Ph from alkalinity towards acid affects the efficiency
of all fertilisation membranes.
This
affects the breeding of their food sources pelagic surface living
fish.
Seabirds
which breed on Skomer are long lived, we have not taken account of
the increase of ultra violet light which causes cataracts among other
changes in visual acuity.
We
can see the effects of increasing exposure to UV causing an increase
of cataracts in human beings, spectacles prescribed for our children
are now being fitted with lenses which block Ultra
Violet light,our sea
going friends, birds, cannot wear sun glasses.
Past
experience has shown that man facilitated disease organisms can
spread rapidly through these dense nesting colonies.
We
cannot quantify the coastal effects of land based viruses on marine
organisms as we no longer use methods to kill them before they are
released form our sewage sea outfalls.
Sea
bird colonies and seals are vulnerable to disturbance non existent in
1955, 2014 an overwhelming 24 hour revenue raising human presence.
There
are few undisturbed and undegraded spaces on our coasts, access for
human leisure must not be allowed to cause further harm.
References
Annual
Report SWWNT 2014
RSB
Reports
University
of Bristol
Skomer
2014
