Conservationists celebrate rise in seabird numbers

There are signs seabird colonies are beginning to recover in Alderney after their numbers were devastated by avian flu, conservationists have said.

The Alderney Wildlife Trust (AWT) said the island's northern gannet colony had grown by 11% since 2023.

Seabird numbers in Alderney were severely affected by avian flu in 2022, which the trust said saw the island lose 28% of its gannet population, and the recent rise "signalled recovery".

Senior consultant ecologist Alex Purdie said the designation of the island's west coast as an internationally protected Ramsar wetlands site had contributed to "some really positive success stories over the last 20 years".

Mr Purdie said: "We've got a wetlands of international importance because of those huge seabird populations."

The trust said fulmars in the island also had a positive year, with 17 chicks recorded in the 2025 breeding season, compared with 10 in 2024.

On Burhou, puffin raft counts reached 195 pairs, up from 175 in 2024, indicating a stable breeding population, said the trust.

Mr Purdie praised the States of Alderney for its support in relation to the Ramsar conservation site.

"They commission annual reports and action plans which enable a huge range of monitoring work and conservation action," he said.

"We have the puffin friendly zone where the colonies can rest without being disturbed by boats and the States have enabled this through support of funding for the Ramsar site."

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