Newsletter / Blog
2012-01-12 Seabird Breeding Atlas of the Lesser Antilles – “Astounding results”.
Over an 11-month
study period during 2009 and 2010, Environmental Protection in the Caribbean’s,
[EPIC’s] partners Katharine and David
Lowrie, sailed 3,162 nautical miles, surveying by land and/or sea 200
islands capable of supporting seabirds, with each island surveyed in the winter
breeding season and again during the summer. Visiting remote islands that few
other sailors will venture near, the study was dubbed by the sailing community
as, “a survey of the worst anchorages of the Caribbean.”
They documented
new seabird-colony Important Bird Areas, finding previously undocumented
colonies and colonies thought to be extirpated. The area stretches in an arc
from Anguilla to Grenada.
Globally,
seabirds are among the most threatened of bird groups, with 80% of seabird
species in decline. Prior to European contact, it is believed there were tens
of millions of seabirds breeding in the Caribbean
region, now there are under two million.
The EPIC Seabird
Breeding Atlas of the Lesser Antilles reveals
that four of the 18 species recorded are present at globally significant
levels. It also reports that Bottowia IBA (St
Vincent and the Grenadines), followed by Dog Island IBA
(Anguilla), are the most important individual islands for globally-significant
seabird colonies in the eastern Caribbean.
One of the
distressing discoveries of the study, however, was the extent to which egg
collection and hunting for seabird chicks and adults still persists throughout
the island chain.
The EPIC Atlas
provides vital data on this poorly studied group of birds. It includes species
accounts for all 18 species; island accounts including abundance and
distribution of breeding colonies and threats; detailed methods and data
analysis and discussion of the priority breeding sites and species of concern
in the study area.
EPIC’s Atlas is
available from the Create Space online store https://www.createspace.com/3565696
as well as Amazon.com |