This article discusses why some seabirds on British island decline by 80% – overfishing and climate change cut off food source. Poor nutrition blamed for massive decline in sooty terns on overseas territory of Ascension.
A population crash in a massive seabird colony on Ascension Island has been attributed to a poor diet after their normal food sources dried up.
Numbers of sooty terns living in the UK overseas territory have plummeted by over 80 per cent in recent decades, from several million to just a few hundred thousand.
New research suggests the bird’s downfall is the result of poor quality food, after industrial fishing and climate change combined to rob them of their usual diet.
Instead they have had to turn to relatively low-nutrient food such as squid, snails and locusts.
Scientists arrived at this conclusion after efforts by the RSPB to eradicate feral cats from the island failed to bolster tern populations.