24 March 2009
Proposals to help puffins in Jersey were agreed at a meeting to implement the Biodiversity Action Plan for Puffins attended by representatives of boat owners, fishermen, anglers, kayak club, ornithologists and other interested parties.
• Under the chairmanship of Greg Morel, the Department’s newly appointed Marine and Coastal Officer, a specialist Seabird Group was formed to oversee all actions for the protection of seabirds.
• The meeting agreed that there was a pressing need to obtain more information to try to determine the causes of the decline of puffins in Jersey. A monitoring programme will be established. All historic information is to be collected and collated and data will be collected by everyone who uses the area.
• Commercial fishermen agreed to a monitoring role and to follow a code of conduct in the vicinity of the nesting sites and other recreational boaters such as canoeists agreed to follow the Jersey Marine and Coastal Wildlife Watching Code which ensures that animals and birds are not disturbed. A Voluntary Protection Zone was also raised and will be discussed further.
• With the help of ECOACTIVE MARINE a public awareness campaign will be established and sponsors will be sought. Measures will include information signage at appropriate places and Greve de Lecq boat owners will help to inform the public and collect information.
• An experimental trapping programme will establish the scale of terrestrial disturbance and predation by mammals such as rats and polecat-ferrets.
Assistant Minister Anne Pryke welcomed this initiative. She said: “At a time when the marine environment is under great pressure, I am pleased that the internationally important habitats and species surrounding the Channel Islands are being protected and that this group has been formed to help achieve this”
The Jersey Seabird Working Group will meet this week to develop these issues.
-ends-
Notes to Editors:
1. For further information, please contact Greg Morel 441620
gov.je