Biosecurity Awareness Survey_RSPB

Description

Seabirds face multiple human-generated pressures, from climate change, overfishing, marine development, entanglement in fishing gear to invasive non-native predators introduced on islands. Seabirds are long lived, slow to reach breeding age and adults rear relatively few chicks each year. This means that when adults die in large numbers the populations cannot breed fast enough to make up for the losses and species go into steep declines. Emerging threats can have severe consequences for seabird populations, such as the current outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza which has already killed thousands of breeding adults in affected colonies around the UK. Increased marine development in Welsh waters, coupled with further climatic changes, are likely to put even more pressure on seabirds in the near future.Through the Biosecurity for LIFE project (which ended in 2023), island managers, residents and volunteers in Wales have engaged in implementing biosecurity surveillance checks and measures across five seabird island SPAs (Bardsey, Grassholm, Puffin, Skomer & Skokholm and Anglesey Terns). The Biosecurity for Wales project is expanding this work to additional islands, and working to develop the long-term biosecurity partnership that will enable the active participation of all key stakeholders to deliver against site management objectives of designated seabird breeding islands across Wales and to ensure their conservation objectives can be met. Our outcomes include well-supported and connected stakeholders actively engaged in biosecurity implementation, and increased awareness of the threat mammalian predators pose to seabirds.https://www.rspb.org.uk/https://biosecurityforlife.org.uk/The purpose of these survey (one winter 2023-24, one spring 2025) is to evaluate the project’s impact on our key outcomes mentioned above.