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– In the most extreme cases, up to 40 eagles live on the rock face, along with crows and ravens, which eat many of the eggs. Mayor Tor Erik Labahå said the red-listed seabirds desperately need the eggs to breed.
On Wednesday, he sent a letter of concern to the Department of Environment, asking them to take steps to stop the eagles.
Norwegian law allows the shooting of eagles to protect sheep and domestic reindeer. Rabaha is calling for the rules to be changed so that endangered seabirds are also protected.
Sea eagles were once threatened with extinction, but their numbers are still viable.
Photo: Knut Sverhorn
Protection from roaming eagles
The problem on Horn Island began in the summer of 2019. Before that, a pair of sea eagles had been nesting on a neighboring island. They were defending a large territory and keep other eagles away from seabird flocks.
When the pair disappeared, the others were free to roam. They were numerous.
It mainly affects loons. Eagles occasionally catch loons, but the worst thing is that they scare the birds away from the nest. The eggs then lie unprotected so that gulls and crows can eat them themselves.
Starting in the summer of 2019, the attacks became so intense that Lomwe gave birth to only a handful of cubs.
In recent years, only the occasional gannet has come to Horn Island to go out to sea. There may be thousands of them.
Photo: Knut Sverhorn
I will give the felling permit myself
“It is of great concern that despite very good conditions for seabirds to obtain food, they are still unable to have a productive breeding season,” Rabaha wrote to the Norwegian Environment Agency.
Labaha believes the solution is obvious: kill the eagle. He wants local authorities, such as the municipality itself or the state executive, to have the power to take action.
“Without such changes, we risk continued hunting of our red-listed species by eagles, which could lead to their complete extinction in our region,” the letter said.
This year also failed
Seabird researcher Tone Reiertsen has been tracking seabirds on Horn Island for 20 years. This summer, she found that most species were doing well, but Lomwe remained a sad exception.
– We found the nest to be a complete failure, Ryertson said.
Researcher Tone Reiertsen found that there were still a large number of adult loons on Horn Island, even though they had not produced offspring for many years.
Photo: Knut Sverhorn
She confirmed that interactions between eagles and egg thieves were also the cause this year. Still, she’s not sure shooting eagles is a good solution.
– We see that sea eagles can migrate up from southern Denmark. It is not certain whether resupply from elsewhere will be enough to launch local sea eagles. Reiertsen said that we do not have enough knowledge to make any comment on this at the moment.
The researchers hope to test other measures, such as whether there are deterrents that target eagles without disturbing the seabirds.
– This could be a measure, but we don’t know if it is effective enough, Reiertsen says.
They have applied several times for funding to research the case. So far, they have received nothing.
Ryertson stressed that it is the government, not the researchers, who decide whether something should be done about the eagles.
Climate change and food shortages are also a problem for the people of Romvi, the Norwegian Environment Agency said.
Photo: Knut Sverhorn
The board certainly didn’t
The Norwegian Environment Agency is completely against shooting sea eagles.
– I understand the city government’s concerns. But it is too simplistic and one-sided to blame the sea eagles. Jo Anders Oland, a senior adviser at the Norwegian Environment Agency, said this is not just a problem for Horn Island, but a decline in the entire Norwegian coastal area and surrounding colonies.
Climate change and food shortages are big reasons why seabirds are in trouble. Oran said sea eagles are just a small part of the whole picture.
There are between 2,700 and 4,000 nesting pairs of sea eagles in Norway. In addition, there are young birds that have not yet started nesting and often fly north. There they get food from bird mountains and the sea.
Jo Anders Auran of the Norwegian Environment Agency.
Photo: Private
– For omnivores like sea eagles, removing individuals that roam the area will not have any impact on the seabird population because new ones will arrive, Oran said.
– But what if more people were killed? In Vard, people talk about dozens of eagles.
– The white-tailed sea eagle has only been protected in Norway for a few decades, in 1968. At that time it was under similar threats as some seabirds today. The sea eagle’s success story is one that should be shown internationally, Orlan said.
I won’t compare it to the red fox.
The state still shoots predators to save critically endangered species elsewhere. Red foxes were released to save mountain foxes in Varanger and pygmy geese at their breeding ground in Andelfinmark.
Oran believes this cannot be compared to shooting sea eagles to save seabirds.
– Human impacts and climate change have allowed the red fox population to become so abundant. It also has a strong ability to re-recruit itself, Orlan said.
He pointed out that, compared with the loon, the Arctic fox and the pygmy goose are also rare species, for which Norway has a special international responsibility.
Tourists who want to scare people
Hornøya is a popular tourist destination. People who want to observe bird life there have kept the eagles out to some extent. But locals and researchers disagree on how big the impact is.
The problem is that tourists also disturb red-listed seabirds. Puffins and loons are particularly vulnerable in their nests, says Tone Reiertsen.
The Norwegian Environment Agency has proposed tightening traffic rules. They would keep tourists to a small area on the west side of the island to protect seabirds.
City Hall Strong protest has beenThey argue that this will affect the tourism industry and, in the worst-case scenario, cause more trouble for the eagles.
Reiertsen is not aware of any research that could answer this question. Net Effect Tourism will decrease.
Black-backed gulls are among the large gulls that raid nests with the help of sea eagles. In recent years, cormorants have responded to the threat by building nests under rocks.
Photo: Knut-Sverre Horn/NRK
Psst – for those who are particularly interested, here are some interesting bird tidbits at the end:
Tone Reiertsen explains that disturbance by sea eagles has had different effects on species on Horn Island:
- Terns are agile fliers and will quickly return to their nests when a sea eagle is passing by so they can protect the eggs.
- In recent years, in response to the eagle plague, the cormorant has changed its behavior. It has learned to nest more often under rocks and cliffs.
- For puffins and auklets, which nest in cavities, the researchers found no effect of hawks.
- On the other hand, loons nesting on the open shelves of Horn Island do not have the same opportunity to seek shelter. In other locations with more rock bells, loons will hide in response to sea eagles.
Published
Saturday, August 24, 2024, 23.37
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