New technologies help researchers to quantify the impact of Avian Flu on the World’s largest Northern gannet colony.

Researchers have found that the Bass Rock gannet colony, the largest Northern gannet colony on the Earth, has reduced by 25-30% since the last major count in 2014. The latest findings were a result of a partnership between the Scottish Seabird Centre, The University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences, and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. The group collected imagery from a state-of-the-art drone, implemented automated counts and combined this data with traditional seabird counting methods to help them understand the impact Avian Flu had on the island’s gannet population.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (Avian Flu) has been spreading through seabird colonies around Scotland since 2021, causing widespread mortalities. The disease was confirmed on the Bass Rock in June 2022, at the height of the gannet breeding season. Following this discovery thousands of seabirds died on the island, resulting in an extremely disrupted breeding season. A colony count undertaken in June this year indicates that the size of the gannet population has decreased from 75,000 sites to around 55,000 sites. A ‘site’ in the colony is an area occupied by a single bird or pair. Despite this significant and concerning decline, the 2023 breeding season has shown some hopeful signs of recovery, with no evidence of widespread mortality this summer.

Advances in the technology now available to monitor breeding gannets and interpret survey results have brought with it opportunities to better understand the colony in the wake of the disease. The research on Bass Rock this year has included drone surveys and machine learning trials, led by the University of Edinburgh’s Airborne Research and Innovation Facility.

“We have been delighted with the performance of the drone in the gannet colony. The data quality surpassed our expectations and we were able to operate the drone without any disturbance to the colony. The implementation of the machine learning methods allowed a fast assessment of the colony, and identified live, dead, nesting and flying gannets. Going forward we plan to publish these early findings, with our partners at the Scottish Seabird Centre and UKCEH, and continue to develop and refine the machine learning methods in wild bird colonies.”

Dr Amy Tyndall & Tom Wade, School of Geosciences & Airborne Research and Innovation Facility, University of Edinburgh

“Until the outbreak of Avian Flu in 2022 the Bass Rock colony had increased relentlessly for more than a hundred years becoming the world’s largest gannet colony in 2014. Over this period counting methods have improved dramatically but the development of new technologies couldn’t have come at a better time and will give us the best chance of documenting how the gannets respond to the unprecedented impacts of Avian Flu.” Professor Mike Harris and Professor Sarah Wanless, Fellows at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

“We were devastated to see the impacts of Avian Flu on the Bass Rock colony during the 2022 breeding season. While it has been reassuring to see signs that the colony is starting to recover, Avian Flu remains a significant concern.

Many of our internationally important seabirds are already affected by a range of pressures, including the impacts of climate change, invasive species, exploitation of the marine environment and pollution. It is more important than ever for Scottish Government to accelerate the production of a Scottish Seabird Conservation Strategy and prioritise actions that will restore and protect marine habitats. Without urgent action, some of our most iconic seabirds could be extinct within 30 years.”

Emily Burton, Conservation Officer at the Scottish Seabird Centre.

Image credits:

Bass Rock gannet colony drone image June 2022 © School of Geosciences & Airborne Research and Innovation Facility, University of Edinburgh

Gannet showing black eye indicating exposure to Avian Flu April 2023 © Emily Burton, Scottish Seabird Centre

Bass Rock gannet colony - June 2014 ©Stuart Murray, June 2022 and June 2023 © School of Geosciences & Airborne Research and Innovation Facility, University of Edinburgh

ENDS

For further information or to arrange an interview:

Jess Thompson, Marketing Manager, email marketing@seabird.org, tel: +44(0)1620 890202.
High-res images available on request.

Notes for editors

The Scottish Seabird Centre is an award-winning marine conservation and education charity whose purpose is to inspire and educate people about the Scottish marine environment and motivate people to care for it by supporting conservation projects.
The Charity’s work is supported by its visitor experience which was refurbished in 2019. The Centre now contains a wide variety of story boards, digital interactives, virtual reality and remotely operated cameras that enable people to experience and learn about the spectacular wildlife of Scotland’s marine environment.
The charity has led a range of high-profile conservation and education projects including the SOS Puffin initiative in the Firth of Forth.
Follow the Scottish Seabird Centre on Facebook/ScottishSeabirdCentre. Twitter @SeabirdCentre and Instagram @seabirdcentre
For more information on the Scottish Seabird Centre visit www.seabird.org

Key Facts about Scotland’s marine environment

Scotland has over 18,000km of coastline, in excess of 900 islands, 61% of the UK total sea area.
The area of Scotland’s seas is about 6 times the land mass of Scotland.
Scotland’s seas support an amazing diversity of wildlife with over 6,500 species recorded.
A third of Europe’s breeding seabirds are found in Scotland.
Seabirds are one of the world’s most threatened groups of vertebrates and one in three species are globally threatened with extinction, including populations of Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) and Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) which are enjoyed by visitors to the Firth of Forth.
Important marine species include basking sharks, dolphins, porpoises and seals. About 35% of Europe’s harbour (or common) seal population also occur in UK waters with 83% of these found around Scotland’s coast.
Underneath the water, Scotland supports important marine habitats such as cold-water coral, kelp forests and flame shell beds (an important blue carbon resource).
Our oceans are important natural resource for combatting the effect of climate change. 83% of global carbon cycle is circulated through the world’s oceans and our coastal habitats account for around 50% of the total carbon sequestered in ocean sediments.
Healthy seas, however, have huge potential to provide natural solutions to the climate emergency by locking up carbon and helping the planet to cool.
In the last 50 years we have lost 2% of the oxygen in our oceans as a direct result of climate change, this is already having a devastating impact on our marine eco-systems and if left unchecked will be catastrophic for food security the world over.