A study undertaken by Portuguese researchers shows that the Selvagens islands are home to the largest colony of Cory’s Shearwaters in the Atlantic, with about 39,000 pairs on a single island. The numbers suggest that the annual growth of the bird population is around 1.45%.
“It is interesting to note that the number of nests has increased more rapidly in areas where there has been an expansion of the shrub cover, under which Cory’s Shearwaters can nest, resulting from the recovery of vegetation in Selvagem Grande, after the rabbit and rodent culling in 2002,” says Paulo Catry (MARE Researcher)
The researcher at MARE – Centre for Marine and Environmental Sciences, Ispa – University Institute, is one of the coordinators of the study, along with José Pedro Granadeiro, from the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change (CE3C), of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.
The study, published by the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom on the 20th of January, reveals that the population of Cory’s Shearwaters (Calonectris borealis) in the Selvagens has grown at an annual rate of 1.45% since 2009.
According to the researchers, Cory’s Shearwaters, like most pelagic birds, suffer several threats, including accidental capture in fishing equipment and fishing tackle pollution, collision with sources of light pollution, predators introduced on islands, marine pollution, especially plastics, and the decrease in ocean productivity linked to climate change.
However, despite the threats, “the growth of this important population of Cory’s Shearwaters reveals that the conservation efforts developed, namely the full protection of the Selvagens and its management by the Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation of Madeira, have had very positive impacts,” underlines Paulo Catry.
The Selvagens, a sub-archipelago of Madeira located about 300 kilometers south of Funchal, composed of two main islands and several islets, constitute the southernmost territory of Portugal, having been classified as a nature reserve in 1971.
In March 2022, the reserve was expanded from 92 to 2,677 square kilometers, in an area of 12 nautical miles around the islands, in which fishing and any other extractive activity are prohibited, becoming the largest marine area with full protection in the North Atlantic.
Meanwhile, in July 2024, the Regional Secretariat for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Environment revealed that it had temporarily authorized the capture of skipjack fish in the reserve for research and monitoring purposes, which is what Japan says its whaling fleet is doing!
Of course, if one fishing trawler is seen operating in the area, what is to stop others from saying they are undertaking a research and monitoring operation?
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
