![]() Sometimes this can be February – other times not until March and April. Herring, however, are steered by ocean temperatures and are much more flexible with regard to when they spawn. This makes the puffin’s nesting period pretty constant from year to year. The bird comes back from the Norwegian Sea, where it has spent autumn and winter, when the days grow long in spring. Nesting activities among puffins are greatly guided by seasonal daylight. ![]() One theory is served by Senior Researcher Leif Nøttestad at the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research. ![]() The reason why puffin chicks are starving or not being hatched at all off parts of the Norwegian coast is more complex than that. Nevertheless, mackerel are just one of the factors in the wake of a warmer sea. A mismatch between the puffin and their food Mackerel are swift and persistent swimmers and can quickly eradicate a school of small herring in these waters. This whirls up and exchanges water from different depths, which is beneficial for production of plankton and herring larvae. The current passes over these relatively shallow waters – of notoriety in maritime history for their maelstroms, which were exaggerated by seamen’s lore. In the Røst region the coastal current which carries the herring fry northwards is widest, and the islands here are ringed in by rich ocean waters, with 100 km of continental shelf in all directions. Røst is more vulnerable, and not just because of a warmer sea. Anker-Nilssen thinks the capelin boom can be a reason why the puffin colony is faring much better up by the North Cape. Mackerel have not yet entered central areas of the Barents Sea, where a small fish, capelin, thrives in the absence of young herring. The Gjesvær population of the bird has remained stable. Perhaps this could be counteracted by increasing limits on mackerel catches, which we haven’t done for several years,” he says.Īnother large puffin colony is at Gjesvær near the North Cape –the northernmost spot on the European Continent. “I wouldn’t sound the alarms on behalf of the herring but we’ve had several years now without good replenishment.
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