It's a puffin drama

As 2025 is now well and truly with us I was wanted to get a blog update sorted before January disappeared. There's loads to talk about as I've been busy with social media updates on Facebook and Instagram, looking at the beavers creating a wetland environment that will see biodiversity skyrocket (fingers crossed) and finding new walks that I'll be adding to the mix offered here on the site. I've also attended a hills skills course and upgraded my outdoor first aid qualification so it's been a busy time. However, something came up this week that I believe jumps to the front of the queue - seabird survival. And it involves a courtroom drama where Denmark and the EU are seeking to take on the UK and Scottish governments.

Here in the Firth of Forth we are really lucky to have large numbers of seabirds choosing to raise their young every year on our islands. From the gannets on the Bass to the Puffins on the May (as pictured), the Firth of Forth is an internationally important and well recognised stronghold for seabirds. This is worth remembering because David Attenborough tells us roughly two thirds of the world's seabird population has been lost since the 1950s. So its not to be taken for granted that seabirds will always be here. We should certainly be doing all we can to avoid making their lives more difficult. And part of this should involve safeguarding the food they eat. Unfortunately this has led us into some tricky waters.

The East coast of Scotland and Firth of Forth together host the largest supplies of sand eels in Europe. These diminutive fish are not terribly large (the biggest reaching no more than 30cm) but the sheer number of them has made them a keystone species for the survival of seabirds. In fact some, like the puffin, tern (pictured) and kittiwake, have adapted to eat mainly sand eels. Other seabird species here in the Forth and East of Scotland will eat masses of sand eels too, making the securing of the sand eel supply last year a big moment for conservationists and nature as a whole.

The UK and Scottish governments were finally persuaded in 2024 to prevent any fishing vessels from taking sand eels from our internationally important waters. Allowing the sand eel population to recover and grow because in spite of their being here in great numbers, they have been on the decline. Part of the blame is of course climate change as warming waters are not capable of supporting large volumes of life (warm water equals less oxygen and less male fish being born as increased temperatures prevent gonads from dropping). However, the sand eel population has also faced another problem, and one that is all too familiar across the North Sea as a whole, over fishing by humans.

That said, the UK catch of sand eels has always been rather small as the species is not particularly valuable to the UK market. Go to Denmark, however, and the story changes completely. Here the sand eel represents a hugely profitable catch (for animal feed and oils) and Danish boats are responsible for taking 96% of the EU quota. So with the UK and Scottish governments deciding to protect the seabird's food source they are immediately in conflict with the Danes and consequently the EU. Guess its time to say Brexit (sorry for swearing). The final agreement stated we'd leave everything as it was at the point of the UK exiting the EU. This means we should not be stopping the over fishing of sand eels in UK waters. Tricky times indeed as the EU has now taken the UK and Scottish governments to court over the whole thing and that court case is being heard as I write this!

It's a bit weird though, as EU scientists hailed the UK and Scottish government imposition of a fishing ban for sand eel take as a great win for conservation. In fact there are scientific lobby groups in Germany and France suggesting that their governments follow the UK example. However, the EU and Denmark argue the UK must stick to the Brexit agreement and allow the Danes to take the sand eels. If this doesn't happen and the UK sticks to its guns, the EU will introduce punitive trading tariffs on UK goods. All at a time we are awaiting President Trump's much threatened trading tariffs. For now let's wait on what the courts say but I can guarantee you the only outcome that makes sense from the seabirds perspective is to keep the fishing ban in place!

If you'd like to read more about this feel free to have a look at The Guardian's website where there's an article on this subject: "Sandeels vs the EU" by Karen McVeigh, Monday 27 January.