Current status of the seabird colony on the Bolshoy Arsky Island, Barents Sea, Russia

Abstract

Recent decades have seen a significant decline in the abundance of many colonial seabird species throughout their range. Numerous island and continental colonies of colonial seabirds are found on the Murman Сoast. One such location, the Bolshoy Arsky Island, underwent assessments only twice: in 1950 and in 1992. As a result of the 2023 assessment, we recorded 10 species of seabirds: Fratercula arctica, Uria aalge, U. lomvia, Alca torda, Cepphus grylle, Phalacrocorax carbo, P. aristotelis, Larus argentatus, L. marinus and Somateria mollissima. Of these, a decline in the global population of guillemots and puffins has been noted, while cormorants and eider are already in the Red Book of the Murmansk Oblast. Breeding records were not previously reported for the guillemots, European herring gull and Great black-backed gull. Along with that, the numbers of breeding Atlantic puffins have not change significantly compared to the 1992 counts.

Keywords

• Arctic
• seabirds
• marine colonial birds
• Arctic avifauna
• Northwest Russia
• island populations