Conservation

Supporting marine conservation in Scotland

Our marine wildlife and habitats are under increasing threat from the global impacts of the climate crisis and nature loss. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in August 2021 makes it abundantly clear that human activity is changing our climate in unprecedented and, in some cases, irreversible ways.

90%

of global warming has been absorbed by the oceans, resulting in rising sea temperatures, sea levels and deoxygenation

1.5°C

anticipated rise in global temperature by 2052 Iconic species such as Atlantic puffins and Black-legged kittiwakes are in steep decline

As a Charity our goal is to ensure marine habitats and wildlife are adequately protected, restored and resilient to these pressures. To support this we are developing, demonstrating and promoting models of conservation best practice and citizen science. In January – July 2021 these have included:

8

SOS Puffin work parties tackling tree mallow on local islands

154

people contributed to citizen science surveys supporting marine conservation

470

volunteers engaged in marine conservation projects

20+

community / self-led beach cleans, engaging 131 people and removing 33 bags of litter

Feedback from conservation projects:

“The SOS Puffin project has depended entirely on our wonderful volunteers who have worked so hard clearing the invasive plant tree mallow so that puffins can nest. This year they have also carried out a count of the nesting puffins on the islands near North Berwick. On Craigleith this is a major task involving lines of counters covering every inch of the island to ensure all the puffin burrows are found. It was encouraging that numbers on Craigleith have increased significantly over the last three years to 4,168 breeding pairs and remain high on Fidra at almost 1,000.” John Hunt, SOS Puffin project founder