Scottish Seabird Centre

The team at the Scottish Seabird Centre have spotted the first puffins of the year on their live cameras in the Firth of Forth. An important site for seabirds, the Forth is home to the largest colony of breeding puffins on the East Coast of Scotland, the Isle of May, as well as the world’s largest colony of Northern gannets on the Bass Rock. The puffins departed in July last year to spend the winter out in open seas, but this early first sighting is an exciting reminder that the seabird breeding season is about to begin.

The colourful seabirds were seen on the water close to Craigleith island, on the Scottish Seabird Centre's interactive live cameras. Craigleith is an important site for puffins and has seen a recent boost in breeding pairs thanks to the work of the Charity's award-winning project - SOS Puffin. Coordinated by the Scottish Seabird Centre, and in partnership with RSPB, SOS Puffin has been taking volunteer work parties onto the islands of Craigleith, the Lamb and Fidra in the Firth of Forth, for the past 18 years. The work parties remove invasive tree mallow, which can prevent puffins from reaching their nesting burrows.

Thanks to the hard work of over 1000 volunteers since the outset of the project, puffin numbers are now up to around 5000 breeding pairs on Craigleith island alone, marking a great conservation success story.

The Scottish Seabird Centre’s Senior Conservation Officer, Emily Burton, said of the sighting: “I’m delighted that the first puffins of the year have now been spotted nearby Craigleith! These birds are joyful to see, and we are very lucky that so many call the Firth of Forth ‘home’ during the summer months. The race is now on for our conservation team and brilliant volunteers to make sure that the islands are in good shape for returning seabirds, removing litter and invasive plants before the busy breeding season begins.”

You can experience the delightful antics of the Firth of Forth's puffins from the Centre’s various boat trips, which begin on the 1st of April, or via their interactive live cameras.

For more information, or to book a boat trip, visit: https://www.seabird.org/boats

Image credits and captions:

· Atlantic Puffin © Nicol Nicolson

· Puffins on Craigleith © Emily Burton, Scottish Seabird Centre

High-res images available to download here.

Note these images are free to use for this story only.

ENDS

For further press information:

· Jess Thompson, Marketing Manager, email marketing@seabird.org, tel: +44(0)1620 890202.

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.

· In May 2025 the Charity will celebrate its 25th anniversary of the opening of its Visitor Centre doors to the public and over the years has won multiple awards for tourism and sustainability. It 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.