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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
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