Wildlife biologists checked some burrows where Atlantic puffins nest and found a large number of pufflings dead in their nest from starvation. Adult puffins will feed themselves first, and the scarcity of capelin, a forage species of fish, meant there was not enough food to take back to the nest to feed their chicks. Capelin make up to 50 per cent of their diet. (Chris O’Neill-Yates/CBC)
“These seabirds that have evolved to survive in one of the harshest environments on Earth are faced with this completely disorientating artificial light,” said Jones. “They don’t successfully get out to sea so they basically strand on land and and die in very large numbers.”
‘Canary in the coalmine’
The United Nations calls light pollution “a significant and growing threat to wildlife” that contributes to the death of millions of birds globally.
Seabirds that migrate at night and go off course chasing artificial light are at risk of becoming exhausted, being eaten by predators, or colliding with buildings.
The impact of warming ocean temperatures is already being found in other Atlantic puffin populations.
“The worry is, is that these puffins are going to experience the same fate here in Newfoundland that they’re experiencing in the Eastern Atlantic,” said Jones, “with year after year of no chick surviving, the population begins to crash and then in some areas disappear.”
Seabirds are a great indicator of the health of the ecosystem, says Wilhelm, and O’Brien says the puffin is warning us the ocean is under stress from climate change.
“The puffin is acting like the canary in the coal mine.”
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