Dr Glyn Young said that recent measures, including the establishment of a voluntary exclusion along the coast at Plémont where the birds nest, were ‘too little, too late’.
Bird watchers have reported seeing about eight birds in the Island this year, which is dramatically fewer than a few years ago. Similar drastic declines have been recorded in the other Channel Islands and along the north cost of France. However, it is thought that there may have been an increase in bird numbers further north and large breeding colonies are still thriving in Scotland.
Dr Young, who recently wrote a report which suggested ways to try to safeguard the birds including the protection zone, said: ‘It is potentially likely that Jersey’s puffin population is biologically extinct. It is quite possible. You cannot say for sure. You don’t see the young as they fly out at night, but just because birds are up there nesting does not mean that they are successfully breeding. We just don’t know.’
