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SCIENCEFriday 19 February 2016

Scientists: Puffins might spend the winter off New Jersey

PATRICK WHITTLE In this Aug. 1, 2014, file photo, Atlantic puffins congregate near their burrows on Eastern Egg Rock, a small island off the coast of
Associated Press Maine. Scientists say they have cracked the code about where Maine’s beloved, colorful Atlantic puffins go in the winter. The an-
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — swer is somewhat surprising: they float out in offshore waters off the New Jersey coast.
Researchers say they’ve
found an answer to the Associated Press
long-standing question of
where Maine’s Atlantic puf- data showed puffins winter Audubon said its findings have prompted the need birdwatchers and tour
fins spend the winter: far off over underwater canyons represent the first time the for information on the non- groups and has been the
New Jersey and New York. and sea mountains in the winter grounds of Maine- breeding movements and subject of vigorous conser-
Puffins are the colorful sea- Atlantic. breeding Atlantic puffins wintering locations of sea- vation efforts in localized
birds of the auk family that have been mapped. It’s birds that nest in the Gulf of areas, including Maine,
are graceful in the wa- an important discovery be- Maine,” he said. where there are about
ter and awkward on land cause puffins are a threat- Atlantic puffins have a 1,000 pairs of puffins. Puffins
and air. The birds spend ened species and data large total population es- nearly disappeared from
the spring breeding season about their movements are timated at more than 10 the Maine coast because
and summer in coastal ar- needed to inform conser- million, but the Internation- of hunting and egg collect-
eas before heading out to vation efforts, Kress said. al Union for Conservation ing in the 19th century but
open ocean waters in the “Potential threats of com- of Nature says that popula- have rebounded in the last
autumn and winter. mercial fishing, offshore tion is declining. four decades thanks to res-
The National Audubon So- wind and climate change The bird is a favorite with toration efforts, Kress said.q
ciety has described the
exact winter locations of
Maine’s puffins as “long a
mystery” to scientists. But
the organization said Tues-
day that locators recov-
ered from 19 puffins in re-
cent years show the birds
spent a chunk of the winter
several states away from
Maine.
The area most frequented
by puffins in the winter was
about 200 miles southeast
of Cape Cod, said Stephen
Kress, the director of the
Audubon Seabird Restora-
tion Program. Kress said the