Seabirds in trouble due to fewer sand eel and sprat

Puffins must now travel ever longer distances to harvest fish for their chicks. Flying long distances, with fish held in the bill, is an additional burden on stressed parents. Chicks are undernourished and their survival rates fall

Atlantic puffins with sand eels in its beak.

The unassuming little sand-eel keeps a low profile. We haven’t even got its name right — this is not an eel, nor is it closely related to eels. However, sand-eel and sprat are ‘keystone species’ which support a unique marine eco-system, as recent declines in their numbers show.

Even great whales, the largest animals ever to have lived, gorge themselves on these little creatures. Puffins, guillemots, and kittiwakes are not only partial to sand-eel and sprat, they rear their chicks on them.