Are Puffins Endangered? Atlantic Puffin Status and Threats

What is the puffin’s official status?

The Atlantic puffin was long considered a common seabird and was listed as Least Concern. In 2015 the IUCN moved it up two categories to Vulnerable, and the 2018 assessment by BirdLife International confirmed that status with a decreasing population trend. Vulnerable is the first of the three “threatened” categories, below Endangered and Critically Endangered; the categories are explained in our guide to endangered animals.

Regional lists are stricter. On the European Red List of Birds the puffin is classed as Endangered, and in the United Kingdom it is on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern. In the United States and Canada it is protected as a migratory bird but is not listed as endangered.

How many puffins are there?

The world population was estimated at about 12–14 million adult birds in 2018. Europe holds more than 90 percent of them, and Iceland alone well over half, so trends there decide the fate of the species.

Based on current trends, the European population has been projected to decline by 50–79 percent between 2000 and 2065. Because puffins live a long time and raise just one chick a year, such declines are slow to reverse.

Why are puffins declining?

Food shortages. The biggest problem is a lack of the right fish at the right time. Puffin chicks depend on small, energy-rich schooling fish such as sand eels, young herring and capelin. Warming seas and changes in plankton have reduced or shifted these fish in several regions, and in some areas industrial fishing for sand eels has added to the pressure. In bad years at colonies in Iceland, Norway and Shetland, almost no chicks survived. In Maine, parents switched to butterfish that were too wide for chicks to swallow. How chick feeding works is explained in How many fish can a puffin carry?

Winter storms. Puffins spend the winter at sea, and long periods of severe storms can make feeding impossible. A wave of seabird deaths, known as a wreck, in the winter of 2013–2014 is thought to have hit several British colonies.

Introduced predators. Rats, cats, mink and foxes brought to islands by people can destroy colonies. On Lundy in England, puffins fell from about 3,500 pairs in 1939 to around 10 pairs in 2000, largely because of rats.

Pollution and fishing nets. Oil spills are deadly to birds that live on the sea surface. After the Torrey Canyon spill in 1967, puffin numbers breeding in Brittany fell to about 16 percent of their earlier level. Some puffins also drown in fishing nets.

Hunting. Puffins are still legally hunted in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The harvest is regulated and has been reduced in many areas, but it adds to the pressure on declining colonies.

Where are puffins doing well?

Not every colony is declining. Skomer in Wales, where predators are absent, has seen its puffin numbers rise to more than 40,000 birds, and many North Sea colonies grew strongly in the late 20th century. Some Canadian colonies, including Witless Bay in Newfoundland, appear to be holding steady, partly because Newfoundland puffins switch to other prey when capelin is scarce. More on where the strongholds are is in Where do puffins live?

How people are helping puffins

Project Puffin in Maine. Puffins had disappeared from Eastern Egg Rock in Maine’s Muscongus Bay by 1885 because of hunting. In 1973 the National Audubon Society, led by biologist Stephen Kress, began moving young puffins from Great Island, Newfoundland, into artificial burrows on the island. By 1986, 954 chicks had been moved. Wooden decoys, mirrors and recorded calls helped persuade returning birds that a colony existed, and in 1981 four pairs nested. By 2014 there were 148 pairs, and the same methods have since been used for seabirds around the world.

Removing invasive species. After rats were eradicated from Lundy in the early 2000s, puffins began breeding successfully again, and numbers have been rising since. On Craigleith in Scotland, volunteers of the SOS Puffin project cut back invasive tree mallow that had covered the slopes and blocked access to burrows.

Protecting the food supply. Marine protected areas and fishing limits, such as restrictions on sand eel fishing in parts of the North Sea, aim to leave more food for puffins and other seabirds.

Careful tourism. Puffin watching brings income to islands in Iceland, Norway, Britain and Maine. Staying on paths, keeping a respectful distance and following local rules helps protect the fragile burrows.