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Puffins are back in Bailiwick waters for another year and boaters are being asked to take care around the endangered birds, especially to the south east of Herm.
The birds can often be seen resting on the waves in Puffin Bay, where the breeding population return each year to raise their offspring.
Male and female puffins mate and return to the same nest every year to lay one single egg. Both the male and female take turns to incubate the egg, and once the egg has hatched, the parents leave the puffling chick in the burrow whilst they go out to search for sand-eels to eat.
In 2014, the winter mortality resulting from increased storm conditions, which became known as the ‘seabird wreck’, saw the population of Atlantic Puffins diminish.
Survey data collected voluntarily by the local Seabird Monitoring Team showed an unsurprising decline in puffin numbers in 2015.
Since 2017, Agriculture, Countryside & Land Management Services has put out yearly reminders to boat users and jet skiers to give this area a suitable berth and to not exceed the six knot speed limit in order to reduce disturbance of these charming, endangered and iconic sea birds during the breeding season.
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