They keep appearing sharp birds. SEO/BirdLife and its Seabird Working Group (GTAM) conducted a 7-18 February Coastal inspection of shorebirds (ICAO) to record the largest number of data on dead seabirds on beaches, with the participation of numerous volunteers.
The tool used to perform this registration is the mobile application ICAO that volunteers can easily use, not only during the specific days of the campaign, but all year round. Their collaboration has been particularly intense this winter, with more than 90 volunteers covering 184 km of 209 beaches in 16 provinces, making it possible to locate 404 beaches between January and February. sharp birdsamong which the razorbills stand out, especially guillemots, but also razorbills and puffins.
Striking are the 314 guillemots, sharp birds which have appeared mainly in the Cantabrian Sea and Galicia. The species breeds in more northern areas, mainly in the British Isles, Ireland, Iceland and Scandinavia, and is present on the Iberian coasts in winter.
The situation in the Bay of Biscay is difficult for these species this winter, and high mortality rates are also recorded on the French Atlantic coast. In the ICAO app alone, which was implemented in the French Atlantic Ocean in 2023 thanks to the LPO organization (BirdLife partner) within the Life Seabil project, more than 400 guillemots were registered in January and February of this year. Initial analyzes suggest that poor physical condition is the cause of death, although detailed studies are needed to know the causes of this condition.
Monitor the threats that cause the appearance of shorebirds
ICAO is a program for monitoring threats to marine fauna (birds, mammals and sea turtles), which consists of carrying out walks along the beaches, recording the specimens that appear on the coast.
The app records the route along a beach and offers the option of uploading photos and data of the fauna found. The data provided helps understand the threats facing seabirds, such as mass mortality due to storms, oil spills or mortality due to accidental capture in fishing gear.
The app, available for download via Google Play and App Store, and developed within the Life Intemares and Life Seabil projects, is available in Spain, Portugal and France in their respective languages. It’s an easy-to-use app, with over a thousand registered users, who have collected data from over 2,000 sharp birds between 2021 and 2023, with an average of 0.65 birds per kilometer traveled. The most common birds are puffins, razorbills, gannets, gulls, guillemots and cormorants.
Find sharp birds, whether alive in poor condition or dead, it is recommended that you do not touch them and call 911 or the nearest Wildlife Recovery Center to decide whether to collect them. In addition to registering in the ICAO app.