The birds are back for another year and boaters are asked to be mindful of them, especially to the south-east, near Puffin Bay, where they can be seen resting on the waves.
An Agriculture, Countryside & Land Management Services spokesman thanked boaters in advance for their cooperation.
‘Our breeding population of puffins return to the cliffs of Herm each year to raise their offspring, so it is important that boat owners are sensitive to their presence,’ they said.
Puffins mate for life and return to Herm each year to lay one single egg, take care of it, raising the puffling, when it hatches, together.
They take turns to incubate the egg, and once the egg has hatched the parents leave the puffling chick in the burrow whilst they go out to search for sand eels to eat, returning at night.
ACLMS wants to protect them as much as it can during this time.
‘In 2014 the winter mortality incident resulting from increased storm conditions, which became known as the sea bird wreck, saw Atlantic puffins being the worst affected species locally,’ added the spokesman.
‘Survey data collected voluntarily by the local sea bird monitoring team showed an unsurprising decline in puffin numbers in 2015.’
The Atlantic puffin was added to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list as a vulnerable species.
The storms in 2014 were thought to have likely killed many juvenile birds, hitting the number of breeding pairs for years afterwards.
It has meant that since 2017, ACLMS has put out annual reminders to boat users and jet skiers to give this area a suitable berth and not to exceed the six knot speed limit in order to reduce any disturbance to the endangered and iconic sea birds during the breeding season.
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