0:00:05 > 0:00:09Just off the west coast of Scotland, in the Outer Hebrides,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13is a little known cluster of islands called the Shiants.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17The name means haunted or enchanted.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22And while the last people left over a century ago,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25every summer, these deserted shores
0:00:25 > 0:00:27become the stage for an extraordinary show.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34Great waves of sea birds return here from far out in the Atlantic,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37coming back to mate and breed.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45For many of us, the sea bird is a noisy scavenger,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48gulls that plague our seafronts.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52But these annual visitors to the Shiants
0:00:52 > 0:00:55are altogether more mysterious and surprising.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59The unmistakably gaudy puffin,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02the sleek and stylish razorbill,
0:01:02 > 0:01:05the chocolaty elegance of the guillemot
0:01:05 > 0:01:07and the prehistoric, fearsome shag.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14I'm Adam Nicolson, a writer,
0:01:14 > 0:01:15and for summer after summer,
0:01:15 > 0:01:18I've been able to witness this great spectacle
0:01:18 > 0:01:22ever since my father first brought me here as a boy 50 years ago.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26The more you get to know about these birds
0:01:26 > 0:01:28the more extraordinary they are.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Any idea that somehow we have a monopoly
0:01:31 > 0:01:36on ingenuity or resilience or persistence
0:01:36 > 0:01:39in the face of difficulty absolutely goes out of the window.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43But now, despite this resilience,
0:01:43 > 0:01:47throughout the North Atlantic, sea birds are in steep decline.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51In Scotland, 40% have already been lost...
0:01:51 > 0:01:54This is a photo taken back in the '80s
0:01:54 > 0:01:57of this exact same cliff, full of birds.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59And now there are literally three or four.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01That's incredible.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04..and in Iceland, traditionally a sea bird stronghold,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07the crisis has hit even harder,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10with some colonies all but wiped out.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12In some cases, we come to a colony
0:02:12 > 0:02:15which all the chicks died within framework of few days -
0:02:15 > 0:02:19130,000 some dead chicks everywhere.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22So, what is going on?
0:02:22 > 0:02:26Could all this pulsating life be coming to an end?
0:02:26 > 0:02:30Are we really facing the last of our great sea bird summers?
0:02:41 > 0:02:44So far, I've spent the last few months on the Shiants
0:02:44 > 0:02:46following the progress of the birds.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50It's puffins. They're all puffins in that.
0:02:52 > 0:02:53It's phenomenal,
0:02:53 > 0:02:57this annual re-emergence of life like this.
0:02:57 > 0:02:58I've begun to look at
0:02:58 > 0:03:02how man's relationship with the sea bird has changed,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05how they were once a valuable source of food...
0:03:05 > 0:03:07There used to be cormorant soup at one time.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09Puffins were a very delicacy then.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11They were tasty, you know? Yeah.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15..and how they were slaughtered in their thousands
0:03:15 > 0:03:18for feathers to make hats,
0:03:18 > 0:03:20even driving one bird to extinction.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25They literary herded them into their ships.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28I've been exploring how our relationship in Britain
0:03:28 > 0:03:30has become one of conservation.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Lovely guillemot. Look at that. Isn't that beautiful?
0:03:34 > 0:03:37But in Iceland, the sea bird heartland,
0:03:37 > 0:03:42I found puffin hunting to be still very much part of everyday life.
0:03:42 > 0:03:48Well, look, there, if you like, is the Icelandic tradition made flesh.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53I've discovered that there are striking local variations
0:03:53 > 0:03:54in the crisis.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56In the far north of Iceland,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59there was kittiwake abundance like I'd never seen...
0:03:59 > 0:04:02That is a wonderful, wonderful sight.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Just a sort of blizzard of sea life.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09..and yet, less than 150 miles from the Shiants, in Orkney,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12the RSPB's Phil Taylor explained
0:04:12 > 0:04:15how 90% of the kittiwakes had been lost.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17There is apparently no food available for them
0:04:17 > 0:04:21to bring back to the chicks, let alone feed themselves.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24This patch of sea, lovely and blue though it looks to you and I,
0:04:24 > 0:04:27obviously, isn't in particularly good condition.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30But whatever is happening to our seas,
0:04:30 > 0:04:34so far at least, the Shiants appear to have escaped.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37This is as good as I've ever seen here.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44As I continue to follow the story of the birds on the Shiants,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48I'm going to investigate the forces driving the crisis elsewhere.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54It's now early July,
0:04:54 > 0:04:57the most critical part of the birds' year.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01I'm on my way to the island's main sea bird colony,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04the best place on the Shiants to get a snapshot
0:05:04 > 0:05:05of how the birds are doing.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11By now, the chicks will be hatched and demanding food.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15It's not only the survival of the adult birds that matters,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19it's how good the feeding of the young ones are,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22cos it's what happens now which governs
0:05:22 > 0:05:25what happens in their first crucial winter.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27They've got to be fed well now,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30and if they're not fed well now, they will die over the winter.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37This landscape of fallen boulders and towering cliffs
0:05:37 > 0:05:39might seem forbidding to us,
0:05:39 > 0:05:42but it's actually perfect for the birds.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52The chicks will all be hidden safely out of sight -
0:05:52 > 0:05:56the puffins in their burrows on the grassy slopes
0:05:56 > 0:05:57and the razorbills and guillemots
0:05:57 > 0:06:01concealed in the nooks and crannies between the rocks.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04BIRDS CALL
0:06:04 > 0:06:07And even though I can't yet see the chicks,
0:06:07 > 0:06:08I can certainly hear them.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13There's...there's a razorbill just arrived,
0:06:13 > 0:06:16its mouth just stuffed with fish.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20Completely delicious-looking sand eels.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25Exactly the kind of fish that their chicks need.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29And into its...down into its hole.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37They look like these fantastic silvered moustaches.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41A great big drooping walrus moustache of fish.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43You know, that is the goodness of the ocean.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45I mean, that's everything good out there
0:06:45 > 0:06:47being delivered to the chicks in here.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54A plentiful supply of fish is essential
0:06:54 > 0:06:57because the chicks have voracious appetites.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02This view from inside the burrow, filmed on the Shiants,
0:07:02 > 0:07:04shows what the adult bird is up against.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07CHICK CALLS
0:07:07 > 0:07:12Each chick, or puffling, has to be fed up to five or six times a day
0:07:12 > 0:07:15and will eat about two and a half kilos of fish
0:07:15 > 0:07:17in the month before it's ready to leave the burrow.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32There's a family of guillemots there with a little chick.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34Very downy still.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38They're incredibly loyal husband and wives,
0:07:38 > 0:07:43you know, guillemot marriages, 90% of them last from year to year,
0:07:43 > 0:07:45and they do this kind of creche thing.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48You know, it's not only the parents of the guillemots
0:07:48 > 0:07:50that look after the chick -
0:07:50 > 0:07:52it could easily be a load of
0:07:52 > 0:07:54sisters...brothers and sisters in there.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00To see this here now means, for the time being,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03here, for this summer, it looks as if the supply is good.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07But it's perfectly clear that
0:08:07 > 0:08:11these birds here won't go on being here,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15unless that sea provides what they need
0:08:15 > 0:08:17and provides the fish that you can see them all
0:08:17 > 0:08:18bringing in here this morning.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24It's a relief to be surrounded by birds on the Shiants...
0:08:25 > 0:08:29..because, in Iceland, some colonies have suffered dramatic collapse.
0:08:31 > 0:08:32While I was there,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35I left the abundance of the north of the country
0:08:35 > 0:08:38and travelled to the worst hit colonies in the south.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44The Westman Islands, an archipelago off Iceland's south-west coast,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47have been home to the world's largest puffin populations.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50The Westman Islands has been
0:08:50 > 0:08:53this incredible place for sea birds forever,
0:08:53 > 0:08:55but in the last ten years,
0:08:55 > 0:08:58they've had really catastrophic breeding failures,
0:08:58 > 0:09:02so something truly disastrous is happening here.
0:09:08 > 0:09:14The main island, Heimaey, was hit by a massive volcanic eruption in 1973,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17but luckily the harbour survived
0:09:17 > 0:09:20and is still the biggest fishing port on Iceland's south coast.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28But if industry on the Westmans is all about cod,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31then the culture here is resolutely about the puffin.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38The focus of the tourist trade,
0:09:38 > 0:09:41puffins are also at the heart of an ancient hunting tradition.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47Before the puffin declines began,
0:09:47 > 0:09:51Westman Islanders were catching more than a 100,000 a year
0:09:51 > 0:09:52for food and feathers
0:09:52 > 0:09:56from a total population of around two million birds.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01We have been utilising sea birds
0:10:01 > 0:10:05ever since the settlement of this country 1,100 years ago,
0:10:05 > 0:10:10and the reason being is that these birds, they have been
0:10:10 > 0:10:16really important to the sustenance of the people in the past,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20but it's still a part of the culture,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24a quite strong part of the culture, especially in certain places.
0:10:26 > 0:10:31These nets called fleygs originated in the Faroe Islands
0:10:31 > 0:10:33and are still in use by hunters today.
0:10:37 > 0:10:38As well as eating the birds,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41another valuable part of the Icelanders' diet
0:10:41 > 0:10:43has always been sea bird eggs...
0:10:44 > 0:10:46..particularly razorbill and guillemot.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Most of the bird cliffs were descended
0:10:51 > 0:10:53in a rope,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55very dangerous business.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06Going down 100m, 200m to collect the eggs.
0:11:12 > 0:11:18You needed a big long rope, and that was expensive.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23It was only the richer people that were able to do that,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26so they were more or less controlling
0:11:26 > 0:11:27how much was being taken.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32Today, with the birds declining,
0:11:32 > 0:11:37the question of hunting sustainably seems more important than ever.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42I think, in general, people think
0:11:42 > 0:11:45this should be a sustainable resource,
0:11:45 > 0:11:51but we should continue to be allowed to harvest.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Going out in an island, watching the behaviour of the birds,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57living among them, even, in many cases...
0:11:59 > 0:12:04..people get to know a lot about these birds.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08It's this first-hand knowledge I want to tap into.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12I've already encountered puffin hunting
0:12:12 > 0:12:13in the far north of the country
0:12:13 > 0:12:16where the birds were abundant,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19but I want to spend time with hunters here in the south
0:12:19 > 0:12:22who've come face-to-face with the puffin declines.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27How long ago was it that you first went out to Alsey?
0:12:27 > 0:12:31- 50 years ago.- 50? So, we've got the 50th anniversary.- Yeah.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35- How old were you then when you first went?- Five years old.- Really?
0:12:35 > 0:12:37I'm spending a couple of days with them,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40and I'm hoping they'll have some ideas about
0:12:40 > 0:12:42what's behind the crisis
0:12:42 > 0:12:44and what the future might hold for the birds.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47I used to be a fisherman.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Are you a millionaire now?
0:12:49 > 0:12:51- No. - THEY LAUGH
0:12:57 > 0:13:01There's a wonderful, otherworldly feel about this place,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03not unlike the Shiants.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07On the larger islands of the archipelago,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09the puffin hunters have organised themselves
0:13:09 > 0:13:12into long established clubs.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15Well, that's Alsey there. That's their island,
0:13:15 > 0:13:16the island we're going to.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18How far from here? About...four miles?
0:13:18 > 0:13:20- Two and a half. - Two and a half miles.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24- So, how many times have you been there, all of you...?- Phew...
0:13:24 > 0:13:26If you count every time...
0:13:26 > 0:13:28- a few hundred. - A few hundred? All of you?
0:13:28 > 0:13:30Yeah, if you've been there about 20 years
0:13:30 > 0:13:32you go maybe four or five times each year.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Yeah. So, you've been 100, you've been 5,000 times.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38LAUGHTER
0:13:38 > 0:13:41As we get closer to Alsey,
0:13:41 > 0:13:43and it becomes clear that there are no birds,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46the atmosphere changes.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49When you were last here, were there many puffins here then?
0:13:49 > 0:13:51- No, not nearly.- No.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Even in the evening, when they came in?
0:13:54 > 0:13:56No, not many.
0:13:56 > 0:13:57But it's...I think, this summer,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00we had never seen as few puffins as this summer.
0:14:00 > 0:14:01Is that right?
0:14:01 > 0:14:0514, 15 years ago, what would it look like when you arrived?
0:14:05 > 0:14:07When you came here, it was completely white here.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10Of course, there's green grass
0:14:10 > 0:14:12but it was...looks more white than green.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15- White with their white chests? - Yeah, their white chest.
0:14:15 > 0:14:16And all the sea was black
0:14:16 > 0:14:19because...because it was a black back.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21So, it was everywhere birds, everywhere perfect,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24all the...all the sea, all the island, everywhere.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28- You could hardly believe it today.- No.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33There might be no sign of any puffins on Alsey,
0:14:33 > 0:14:37but the skies above the neighbouring island were alive with birds -
0:14:37 > 0:14:39gannets.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41Much bigger than puffins,
0:14:41 > 0:14:45gannets are capable of surviving on a wide range of fish.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48It's like a whole ballroom of gannets.
0:14:50 > 0:14:51They're just circling now...
0:14:53 > 0:14:55Gannets are doing really well
0:14:55 > 0:14:58- right next to the puffins that are doing really badly.- Yeah.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01- Why is that?- Mackerel.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04When the mackerel comes over,
0:15:04 > 0:15:06- he get all the sand eel...- Yeah.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08..so there's nothing left for the puffin.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Because the mackerel are here, the gannets are doing well
0:15:11 > 0:15:14- and because the mackerel are here the puffins are doing badly.- Yeah.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17But it's more that's a single cause,
0:15:17 > 0:15:18so maybe there are more causes.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20Yeah, of course.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25The reason why the mackerel is here is warmer ocean.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30- It is like everything in nature is a circle...- Mm-hm.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32..and the circle...
0:15:32 > 0:15:35- When the mackerel goes away, the puffin comes up again...- Yeah.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37..and then it goes down...
0:15:38 > 0:15:41I hadn't expected to hear the blame for the crisis
0:15:41 > 0:15:44put on an influx of mackerel.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46But as we approach the island,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49my immediate concern is how we get ashore.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51It looks quite difficult.
0:15:52 > 0:15:53Can be.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09Yeah. Say when.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12Bit more.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14Left. Left, left. Left, left.
0:16:14 > 0:16:15Up, up, up, up, up, up.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18THEY SPEAK INAUDIBLY
0:16:34 > 0:16:37There's been a hunters' lodge on this site for over 100 years...
0:16:39 > 0:16:41..and from its humble origins,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44it's evolved into something really impressive.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48The men sometimes stay here for a couple of weeks
0:16:48 > 0:16:51and have even installed an ingenious pulley system
0:16:51 > 0:16:53for getting the supplies onto land.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13You know...you'd have to be mad not to love this, wouldn't you?
0:17:13 > 0:17:16I mean, this is like the ideal life.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18I could live here.
0:17:18 > 0:17:20Just tie up the RIB down there.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25It feels deeply connected to the way people have done this
0:17:25 > 0:17:27for a very long time here.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29People have lived on these islands for 1,000 years...
0:17:29 > 0:17:32MAN SHOUTS IN ICELANDIC ...and you can know,
0:17:32 > 0:17:33from the very beginning,
0:17:33 > 0:17:35that they would have come to these islands.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38This, you know, 500,000... MAN CONTINUES TO SHOUT
0:17:38 > 0:17:41LAUGHING: ..500,000, 700,000 puffins,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44and they would have been here taking them.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47And you can connect this, you can feel it.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49The way of life isn't lost here.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56As the RIB goes back to Heimaey to pick up more club members,
0:17:56 > 0:18:00I'm struck by the extraordinary beauty of this place.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03But when Didi produces his net,
0:18:03 > 0:18:05it's a reminder that everything here
0:18:05 > 0:18:08revolves around the hunt for puffins.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13- There was an old puffin hunter from this island.- Yeah?
0:18:13 > 0:18:15- He made this for me. - Oh, did he?- Yeah.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20Obviously, it's exciting and lovely and deeply pleasurable,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22but it's also...kind of terrible.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27No, you... Just like other hunter, you get used to it, so...
0:18:27 > 0:18:28Yeah, yeah.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32- They who are hunting other animals, they get used to it.- Well, yeah.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Well, do you think you'll catch some tonight?
0:18:35 > 0:18:37I mean, they're flying here, aren't they?
0:18:37 > 0:18:39I think that we...I think that we will catch some.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44The boat returns with more hunters.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47The club president and his son, Gulli.
0:18:47 > 0:18:48- Hello.- Hae, hae.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51For generations, their family has been deeply rooted
0:18:51 > 0:18:54in the Icelandic puffin hunting tradition.
0:18:54 > 0:18:59First of all, this was to keep, you know, to get food
0:18:59 > 0:19:01to, er, survive through the winter.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05And then when did that need for puffins last until?
0:19:05 > 0:19:09Well, I remember my grandmother peeling the feathers off the birds
0:19:09 > 0:19:11to use it for pillows...
0:19:11 > 0:19:14- Till what year...? - ..and I was maybe ten years old.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17Ever since seven years old, I have been out here for every summer.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Now I have brought my sons, you know,
0:19:21 > 0:19:22and he has brought his son,
0:19:22 > 0:19:26and so that's what we've been doing, trying to keep the...
0:19:26 > 0:19:32- Tradition.- Yeah, the tradition and the way how we...how this is done,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35because now, since we do not have a lot of puffin here,
0:19:35 > 0:19:36it's going to be lost.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42In the past, when this colony was still at full strength,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46all the members of the club would've come out hunting.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48I think the puffins will come over there,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50and we'll try to catch them, catch three of them.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52How does it look to you in numbers?
0:19:52 > 0:19:54Ah, I think that we will catch some.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56But with so few birds,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59it's just Didi to show me how it's done here.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01- Ready?- Yeah, I am.- Come. Follow me.
0:20:04 > 0:20:05Oh, God.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09'Dusk is when puffins usually turn up in force...'
0:20:09 > 0:20:10It's long, the grass.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13'..so making our way up these virtually empty slopes
0:20:13 > 0:20:16'is a grim reminder that only 12 years ago
0:20:16 > 0:20:20'this island was still supporting hundreds of thousands of birds.'
0:20:22 > 0:20:24- It's riddled with burrows. - ..able to come here.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29What an incredible place, though. Look at it.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32Puffins only love beautiful places, don't they?
0:20:32 > 0:20:33Yeah, that's the way.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35- You never find it in an ugly spot.- No.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39Er...it's good...good up here.
0:20:39 > 0:20:44It's so quiet and, er, beautiful landscape.
0:20:44 > 0:20:45Why do you have a flag?
0:20:45 > 0:20:50Er, because...the young birds, they are so curious.
0:20:50 > 0:20:55When they see the flag, they stick around, look at the flag,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58fly here very slowly, and then I try to catch them.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00- Nab them.- Yeah.
0:21:00 > 0:21:01So, where do we put it?
0:21:01 > 0:21:05We put it... I always do this one here
0:21:05 > 0:21:08- and put it two or three metres higher than...- OK.- ..the stick.
0:21:08 > 0:21:09- OK?- I'll stick it in.
0:21:14 > 0:21:15Kind of here?
0:21:15 > 0:21:18Yeah, or a little bit higher, a little bit...
0:21:18 > 0:21:20- Yeah. There, there.- In here?- Yes.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25If that flag, Didi, is to attract the immature birds,
0:21:25 > 0:21:30- and the breeding has failed for ten, 13 years here...- Yeah.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33- ..are there any immatures to attract?- No, of course not.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37But this is the way we do it all the time,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41so I'm not going to change the way we do it.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43- It's pure tradition.- Yeah.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46There are clearly a few puffins here,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49but the local government sets the length of the hunting season
0:21:49 > 0:21:51according to the abundance of birds.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Such a beautiful sight, seeing them coming towards you, isn't it?
0:21:54 > 0:21:55Yeah, it is.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58This year, here in the crisis-hit south,
0:21:58 > 0:22:01it's been restricted to just three days.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03- Yay!- Ush!- Not long.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05Oh, growling away. PUFFIN CALLS
0:22:05 > 0:22:08So...can you tell his age?
0:22:08 > 0:22:11- I can tell this is not a... - Not a very old one.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13- Not very old one. - He hasn't got any grooves in his...
0:22:13 > 0:22:15- I can see because he's very light...- Yes.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18- ..and his nose is not so very big.- No.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21But this is the first bird that I catch,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24- so I speak to him a little bit... - Go on, then.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29..and I say to him give me good luck of hunt this year...
0:22:29 > 0:22:31- I think he needs...- ..and I will give you a freedom. OK.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34He needs to hear that in Icelandic - he doesn't...
0:22:34 > 0:22:38IN ICELANDIC:
0:22:38 > 0:22:39OK.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55You leaned forward like a dog.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58It's like looking like a...a spaniel.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00Eyes looking everywhere.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06What have been your usual catches here?
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Er, in 2013,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14we only caught 100 adults that year.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16And was that the worst year?
0:23:16 > 0:23:19No. Last year, we didn't catch...catch one.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21- You didn't catch a single puffin?- No.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24- Why not?- Because there weren't any.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26- Even on an evening like this, they wouldn't come in?- No.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29Wow.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34And we know the situation isn't good, so we just let them fly
0:23:34 > 0:23:38- and...try to build up, you know?- Mm.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41We know it will take five or ten years
0:23:41 > 0:23:44to be same as it was at the best time.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48So, you just have to wait, be patient
0:23:48 > 0:23:52and just to have fun with my...my friends,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56see how beautiful this place is, and that gives me a lot of pleasure.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01Didi's clearly convinced that the birds will return.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03I'm not so sure.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06I wonder if that's just the voice of hope?
0:24:06 > 0:24:09But, for the moment, it's clear that
0:24:09 > 0:24:12they're trying not to take too many birds.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15I would say maybe ten, 20 max.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18- And that'll be the ceiling on it? - Yes, yes.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22- And is...- Just to have one dinner, traditional dinner,
0:24:22 > 0:24:26puffin dinner at home, bring the family together
0:24:26 > 0:24:31and say, "OK, we'll do it once this year."
0:24:33 > 0:24:36The next morning, I found photo albums
0:24:36 > 0:24:41that exhaustively documented their hunting history on Alsey.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45There are pictures of these men here...as boys.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47That's Gulli.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53And that's his father and that's his grandfather.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00Wow, look at that. That is thick.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04Incredible numbers. Like...like midges.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08But then, looking at that, that's not unlike a very good evening
0:25:08 > 0:25:10on the north slope in the Shiants.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14It can feel that you're looking out through a field of puffins,
0:25:14 > 0:25:15and that's what it looks like there.
0:25:19 > 0:25:20Looking at their photos,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24I was struck by how Gulli and I both had childhoods intertwined
0:25:24 > 0:25:26in the life of these birds.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32But the relationship my father gave me with the Shiants puffins
0:25:32 > 0:25:34was completely different -
0:25:34 > 0:25:37arm's length, detached,
0:25:37 > 0:25:39a pair of binoculars, not a fleyg net.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46Gulli's relationship, on the other hand, was immediate,
0:25:46 > 0:25:50physical and driven by centuries of Icelandic tradition.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55- But there is a...there is a mountain of puffins there, isn't there?- Yes.
0:25:55 > 0:25:56Look at that.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59I mean, how many in there? Can you reckon how many?
0:25:59 > 0:26:02- Er...- 1,200.- A few hundred?
0:26:02 > 0:26:04Maybe...maybe 2,000.
0:26:04 > 0:26:09They're not all visible, but that's probably 1,500, 2,000.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11So, a good day's work for you.
0:26:11 > 0:26:17Er...a good day, maybe say 200 to 500 is a very, very good day.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20- For one catcher?- Yeah.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23We kind of regret we can't go out and catch -
0:26:23 > 0:26:25that's really what we're missing.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30But it must be... It's almost like the glue of the event's missing,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34- the thing that binds it together is not here.- Yes, yes.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37- But you must miss that, don't you? - Yeah. Oh, yeah.- Surely.
0:26:37 > 0:26:38You know...
0:26:38 > 0:26:40Looking at these images,
0:26:40 > 0:26:42I'm reminded that less than 50 years ago
0:26:42 > 0:26:45people in Scotland were still taking sea birds -
0:26:45 > 0:26:47even on the Shiants.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51It is a sort of pan-Atlantic phenomenon, this,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54and the reason that it's stopped in Scotland
0:26:54 > 0:26:57was that the mainstream culture didn't like it,
0:26:57 > 0:26:59whereas the mainstream culture here celebrates this.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03This is somehow the heart of Iceland.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06You know, maybe what they're riding on here
0:27:06 > 0:27:10is the same memory of poverty
0:27:10 > 0:27:13that was there in the Hebrides too.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15And if you remember a time,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18even sort of half-genetically remember a time
0:27:18 > 0:27:21when life was incredibly difficult and up against it,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24then this is a gift from nothing, isn't it?
0:27:24 > 0:27:28This is almost literally manna from heaven.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31And...those kind of cultural memories
0:27:31 > 0:27:33are incredibly long-lasting,
0:27:33 > 0:27:38and they almost last beyond their justification
0:27:38 > 0:27:40and I think that's what's happening here.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46It is difficult to believe that taking so many puffins
0:27:46 > 0:27:48hasn't played a part in their decline.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52But the Alsey men do seem to try and hunt sustainably.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57They don't take any breeding bird bringing fish in for its young.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00Even so, especially in the current situation,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03it seems crazy to take any puffins at all.
0:28:10 > 0:28:11Back on the Shiants,
0:28:11 > 0:28:15it was good to be surrounded by so many thousands of birds.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21But it's impossible to forget that the wider crisis among the sea birds
0:28:21 > 0:28:22might be coming here.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Everything that you see and hear in Iceland,
0:28:29 > 0:28:33the really shocking levels of failure to breed there,
0:28:33 > 0:28:37hang just beyond that horizon as a threat here.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40But could what has happened there happen here?
0:28:40 > 0:28:44You know, could my life be the last life
0:28:44 > 0:28:46in which you can come to places like this
0:28:46 > 0:28:49and know that this is what you get to see?
0:28:49 > 0:28:51I mean, that is a live question.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55But there are things we can do.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59It's hoped that the Shiants could act as a sort of seed bank,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02exporting sea birds to other places.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06And to lift a significant burden from the colonies here
0:29:06 > 0:29:09and maximise their chances of survival,
0:29:09 > 0:29:13the RSPB have begun a major programme
0:29:13 > 0:29:17to eradicate the birds' only non-indigenous predator -
0:29:17 > 0:29:19the black rat.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22These alien invaders came ashore from ships
0:29:22 > 0:29:25wrecked on the Shiants in the 18th century.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29They prey on sea bird eggs and chicks
0:29:29 > 0:29:31and prevent some species from nesting here at all.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37Costing nearly a million pounds and taking over a year to complete,
0:29:37 > 0:29:39the project is led by Biz Bell.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41Do people say that to you quite often, Biz?
0:29:41 > 0:29:43- "Are you the rat lady?" Yes. - Are you the rat, lady?
0:29:43 > 0:29:46What is it about rats? No, we'll have that conversation over there.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50'She's seen the impact of removing unwanted predators
0:29:50 > 0:29:52'on islands all over the world.'
0:29:53 > 0:29:57I mean, the whole thing is usually your ecosystem's really suppressed
0:29:57 > 0:30:00and so once that predator and competitor is gone,
0:30:00 > 0:30:02everything suddenly comes out.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04- That is so exciting, that... - I've been in Mauritius,
0:30:04 > 0:30:06and within three weeks,
0:30:06 > 0:30:09we had some lizards that we'd never seen before
0:30:09 > 0:30:11- and they hadn't been recorded for five years...- Really?
0:30:11 > 0:30:13- ..and they thought they were extinct.- Fantastic.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16And they were just small ones managing to survive in the crevices,
0:30:16 > 0:30:18but any bigger, when they couldn't live in the crevices,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20they got nobbled by rats.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26There is one species it would be really exciting
0:30:26 > 0:30:28to have return to the Shiants -
0:30:28 > 0:30:30the storm petrel,
0:30:30 > 0:30:33one of our most entrancing sea birds,
0:30:33 > 0:30:37named after St Peter, who walked on water.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42It's effortlessly at home out to sea,
0:30:42 > 0:30:47but on land, it's hopelessly vulnerable to predators like rats.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49Storm petrels, they're tiny, you know, mouse-size
0:30:49 > 0:30:50and they live in little crevices,
0:30:50 > 0:30:52and so, of course, so do all the rats and things,
0:30:52 > 0:30:54and they're just easy prey.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58And the thing is, is they could be trying every year to establish here,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01- but unfortunately, you know, they're probably...- Getting done.
0:31:01 > 0:31:03- ..being predated by rats.- Yes.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07Eventually, the rats will be killed using over a thousand bait stations
0:31:07 > 0:31:09each containing blocks of poison.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15It's going to be a tall order to get every last one,
0:31:15 > 0:31:19but Biz has a reputation as the best in the world.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25STORM PETREL CALL PLAYS OVER LOUDSPEAKER
0:31:25 > 0:31:29This bizarre sound is actually the cry of a storm petrel
0:31:29 > 0:31:31massively amplified.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36These speakers and nets have been set up by a team of bird ringers,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39here to monitor the sea bird colonies.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46The idea is to try and encourage nearby storm petrels
0:31:46 > 0:31:49to investigate the Shiants as a possible home.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54- Oh! There's one, there's one. Oh, there's one here.- Yeah.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58There's one in there, there's one in there.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01The birds are caught so they can be ringed, recorded,
0:32:01 > 0:32:03and their movements tracked.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05All done. That's him free.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08- So, in the bag, just to keep it calm.- Yeah.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16Hey, look at that! How lovely is that?
0:32:16 > 0:32:20Oh, that is... What an exquisite thing. Look at that.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24This tiny bird flies thousands of miles every year
0:32:24 > 0:32:26from the seas off South Africa
0:32:26 > 0:32:29to breeding colonies in Britain and Ireland.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31The ringing team is led by Jim Lennon.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33They always appear very delicate,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35they're, obviously, very tough creatures
0:32:35 > 0:32:36to survive in the southern oceans.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40I can't believe this animal travels so far.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46- 2580173.- Yeah.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51Does it ever feel slightly wrong to you, this,
0:32:51 > 0:32:54to put something so human on something so wild?
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Erm...no cos it doesn't affect the way they live.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59It helps us understand how they live
0:32:59 > 0:33:02and therefore, we can help, erm...conserve them.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06- So, you're going to weigh it? - Yes, yeah.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08There we go. OK.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14That's the weirdest environment it's ever been in.
0:33:16 > 0:33:17Hopefully.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21And...what are you getting?
0:33:21 > 0:33:24- 24.8g.- Yeah.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26- That's less than a bag of crisps.- Yeah.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30- This creature that travels the Atlantic and back.- That's right.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33Once it's been ringed and fully documented,
0:33:33 > 0:33:37each bird is released, apparently untraumatised by its ordeal.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41So, you put it in your pa...put it on your palm now
0:33:41 > 0:33:44- and let it take off when it feels like it.- On here?
0:33:44 > 0:33:46It might take a while cos there's not much breeze.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53OK. So, it's sitting there, I can barely feel its presence,
0:33:53 > 0:33:55it's just shuffling, just moving...
0:33:55 > 0:33:57- and it's gone!- Wow. Cool.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00- ADAM LAUGHS - I never tire of that.
0:34:01 > 0:34:06Jim and his team went on to catch 23 storm petrels that night,
0:34:06 > 0:34:10suggesting there's plenty around to establish a new colony here.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13STORM PETREL CALL PLAYS OVER LOUDSPEAKER
0:34:15 > 0:34:17But if the storm petrels do return,
0:34:17 > 0:34:22they'll only stay if the seas around the Shiants remain plentiful.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24As I saw for myself in Iceland,
0:34:24 > 0:34:28no colony can continue without the food to sustain it.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32Somehow these waters are still fertile enough
0:34:32 > 0:34:35to bring the birds back every summer.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38It may be to do with particular local conditions.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43Notoriously powerful tides here force the water over rough seabeds,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45stirring up nutrients that feed
0:34:45 > 0:34:47the plankton the sand eels depend on.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53I've always found these seas to be incredibly rich.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57Ever since I first started coming here with my father,
0:34:57 > 0:35:01it has seemed almost too easy to catch a fish,
0:35:01 > 0:35:02and that's still true today.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08Well, you can catch...pollock, very nice pollock,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11mackerel, er, coley.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13I caught a cod once.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16HE CHUCKLES Once in 50 years.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18Everything feeds on sand eels.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21Sand eels are like the rice of the ocean -
0:35:21 > 0:35:23they're just...they're just everywhere.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27And...I've got a fish.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29HE CHUCKLES That's ridiculous.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31There's fertility for you.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33Ooh, that's pulling hard.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Oh! Mr Pollock. HE CHUCKLES
0:35:37 > 0:35:39That is magnificent.
0:35:39 > 0:35:40Oh, yes.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43And it's triple hooked.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47You see, so hungry for the sand eels.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51Look at that. You see, that is... Isn't that a splendid creature?
0:35:51 > 0:35:54Look at what the ocean can give you here.
0:35:57 > 0:35:59I've always assumed that, like me,
0:35:59 > 0:36:02the Shiants birds fish not far from the colonies,
0:36:02 > 0:36:06but until recently, exactly where sea birds feed
0:36:06 > 0:36:08has always been a mystery.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13An RSPB team has come to the Shiants to map the birds' fishing trips
0:36:13 > 0:36:17in these waters around the islands known as the Minch.
0:36:19 > 0:36:25Ecologist Emily Scragg is using GPS technology to track the birds.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28- Wow, it's so miniaturised, isn't it?- Yeah.- It's incredible.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30So, what are you going to do with this?
0:36:30 > 0:36:34- We'll put on the tags...- OK. - ..onto the birds backs,
0:36:34 > 0:36:37- which will go out and collect data. - Incredibly light.
0:36:37 > 0:36:38And when they come back,
0:36:38 > 0:36:41they transmit the data to these base stations,
0:36:41 > 0:36:43and we can come and pick up the base station
0:36:43 > 0:36:44and look at the data.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47So, is that going to go on a...on a razorbill?
0:36:47 > 0:36:50- Razorbill or a guillemot. - Yeah. Lovely. Today?
0:36:50 > 0:36:52Er, possibly. Hopefully!
0:36:53 > 0:36:56They're coming to the end of six-week programme
0:36:56 > 0:36:59to fit trackers on about 50 guillemots and razorbills
0:36:59 > 0:37:00from all the main colonies.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07'Emily catches her birds without the use of a net...'
0:37:07 > 0:37:09(Oh, he's in a bag! He's in a bag!)
0:37:09 > 0:37:11'..and to try and minimise their disturbance,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14'insists on quiet while she works.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25'Emily's colleague, Jerry, attaches the transmitter
0:37:25 > 0:37:27'to the back of a razorbill.'
0:37:28 > 0:37:29This is like A & E.
0:37:35 > 0:37:40(OK. So, there's the tag with GPS tracker.)
0:37:40 > 0:37:45'The tag will constantly record and store the bird's journeys,
0:37:45 > 0:37:47'downloading the data to a base station
0:37:47 > 0:37:49'every time it comes back to the nest.'
0:37:53 > 0:37:55(We just check that it's secure.)
0:37:56 > 0:37:57How is that? OK.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03Yay.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05The sticky tape and battery last about a week
0:38:05 > 0:38:07before the tracker falls off.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15With their programme complete and all the data collected,
0:38:15 > 0:38:19Emily and Jerry have built up a map that reveals for first time
0:38:19 > 0:38:21the movements of the Shiants' birds.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25That's amazing.
0:38:25 > 0:38:30- The entire Minch within 20 miles... - 20km.- 20...
0:38:30 > 0:38:32Well, 20km, 15 miles, something like that
0:38:32 > 0:38:35is solid with sea bird tracks.
0:38:35 > 0:38:36I mean that...
0:38:36 > 0:38:38It's...it's quite a rainbow with the...
0:38:38 > 0:38:41SHE CHUCKLES My God, it's busy.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44Each coloured line represents the journey of an individual bird
0:38:44 > 0:38:47looking for fish for its young.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49What sort of...what's the average distance they're going?
0:38:49 > 0:38:52- It's between five miles and ten miles.- Yeah?
0:38:52 > 0:38:55- On the shorter side of what sea birds tend to do.- Right.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57Some of the razor bills and guillemots
0:38:57 > 0:38:59we've tracked off Fair Isle have gone quite a distance,
0:38:59 > 0:39:03and the birds here have gone comparatively not very far.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07These results are graphic confirmation that for now, at least,
0:39:07 > 0:39:11the local seas round the Shiants are providing what the birds need.
0:39:12 > 0:39:17But in the south west of Iceland, this is clearly not the case.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19The decline of the puffin colonies
0:39:19 > 0:39:21means that their seas must be changing.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26Iceland's leading puffin expert, Erpur Hansen,
0:39:26 > 0:39:28took me to one of the worst-hit puffin colonies
0:39:28 > 0:39:30in the Westman Islands
0:39:30 > 0:39:32only a few miles from Alsey.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36He's been studying the connection between the state of the seas
0:39:36 > 0:39:38and what's happening to the birds.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42In the '90s, this would be packed with birds on a good day
0:39:42 > 0:39:46just like up in Scotland, but that's now history.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48This is 13th year in a row
0:39:48 > 0:39:51we have seen a breeding failure of larger or greater extent...
0:39:52 > 0:39:55..and...so they...they were never born.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00And now we're only seeing the remains of the adult population,
0:40:00 > 0:40:02slowly going down in numbers by the years.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06- This sight is the sight I dread. - Yeah, I agree.
0:40:06 > 0:40:12It's very shocking to me to kind of feel...feel the absence.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15What I think is happening, the...the wintering grounds are,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18as far as we know, are OK.
0:40:18 > 0:40:23It's the local summer food supply, which is the key problem.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27On the Shiants, the GPS results had shown the birds foraging
0:40:27 > 0:40:31no more than 20km from the colony.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33How far out are they fishing?
0:40:33 > 0:40:35It's normally within 60km or so.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38They can be seen up to over 120,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40but, these parents are burning
0:40:40 > 0:40:43half their body weight per day in energy.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47So, the chick gets less and less to eat the further away they fly,
0:40:47 > 0:40:48and this applies to all sea birds.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51But these guys are very high on maintenance,
0:40:51 > 0:40:55that's why they are a bit sensitive to changes in food supply.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59Back at his house, Erpur explained some of the causes
0:40:59 > 0:41:02driving the changes in the ocean system.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06We are very dependent on this major current here
0:41:06 > 0:41:08called the Irminger.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10It's an off shoot from the Gulf Stream.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12It's sort of like the key player,
0:41:12 > 0:41:14and the warming in the south and west,
0:41:14 > 0:41:18where the main populations of puffins are,
0:41:18 > 0:41:20basically collapsed the sand eel.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23In 2003, it really started.
0:41:23 > 0:41:29So, warmer current coming up to the south-west corner of Iceland
0:41:29 > 0:41:32has meant a drop in the sand eel population?
0:41:32 > 0:41:34Yeah, we see this intensity
0:41:34 > 0:41:35with the increased flow of this current
0:41:35 > 0:41:38meaning it's just warming everything up.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42That has huge impact on...on...marine life.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46One degree Celsius, it causes a regime-shift,
0:41:46 > 0:41:48- as they call them.... - What do you mean by that?
0:41:48 > 0:41:52Total reorganisation of the whole system.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55Some key species fall out, move or will vanish.
0:41:55 > 0:42:01So, there's a lot of major change, which is...goes on for decades.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03Erpur also showed me some research
0:42:03 > 0:42:07which added another dimension I was not expecting.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11This complicated-looking graph disguises a simple truth -
0:42:11 > 0:42:14that these temperature changes are part of a cycle.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18This is the third period of ocean warming
0:42:18 > 0:42:19in the last 100 years or so,
0:42:19 > 0:42:22and each time, there's been a corresponding failure
0:42:22 > 0:42:24of the puffins to breed.
0:42:24 > 0:42:29So, the current one we're looking at is quite intense.
0:42:29 > 0:42:30There is no chick production.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32We're measuring the chick production here,
0:42:32 > 0:42:34and it's virtual zero.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40In 2020, it should reverse or start to cool again.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45But if you add global warming on top of the natural oscillation anyway,
0:42:45 > 0:42:48that is a major uncertainty added to the system, isn't it?
0:42:48 > 0:42:50That's the name of the game.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55So, the question seems to be, is this a natural oscillation
0:42:55 > 0:42:58or an irreversible man-made warming of the sea
0:42:58 > 0:43:00or a bit of both?
0:43:00 > 0:43:03Are the Alsey puffin hunters right -
0:43:03 > 0:43:06that we might be on the point of returning to cooler conditions?
0:43:08 > 0:43:10Looking for answers, I've come to
0:43:10 > 0:43:14the National Oceanographic Centre in Southampton
0:43:14 > 0:43:17to see one of the senior scientists, Penny Holliday,
0:43:17 > 0:43:21whose work focuses on the mechanics of the North Atlantic.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24The waters south of Iceland are influenced by
0:43:24 > 0:43:26the deep ocean currents.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29So, this whole region between the UK, Iceland,
0:43:29 > 0:43:31Greenland and Canada
0:43:31 > 0:43:32is the subpolar North Atlantic,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36and it has this large recirculating ocean current system
0:43:36 > 0:43:38that we call the subpolar gyre.
0:43:38 > 0:43:39They're giant swirls
0:43:39 > 0:43:42of 3,000 miles wide or something.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Yes, it's a massive swirling pot of ocean water
0:43:45 > 0:43:48that mixes up warm water from the sub tropics
0:43:48 > 0:43:50that comes from the Gulf Stream
0:43:50 > 0:43:52and cold fresh water from the Arctic.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55How come the sea around Iceland has changed
0:43:55 > 0:43:57apparently as radically as this?
0:43:57 > 0:43:59What's actually happened?
0:43:59 > 0:44:00There is a boundary between
0:44:00 > 0:44:02the cold fresh water in the centre of the gyre
0:44:02 > 0:44:04and the warm salty water that's lying, basically,
0:44:04 > 0:44:06- to the west of us in the UK.- Right.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10But in the mid-1990s, there was quite a change
0:44:10 > 0:44:12in the shape and the circulation.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15That boundary moved westwards
0:44:15 > 0:44:17and that allowed more sub-tropical water
0:44:17 > 0:44:19to flood this area west of the UK
0:44:19 > 0:44:22and basically to bathe this deep ocean south of Iceland
0:44:22 > 0:44:24with much warmer water.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26Some of that water also made its way onto
0:44:26 > 0:44:29the continental shelf around the UK
0:44:29 > 0:44:31and so that'll be influencing the conditions
0:44:31 > 0:44:34in the Western Isles and also in the Orkneys.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37I wondered what Penny thought the future might hold?
0:44:37 > 0:44:41It's difficult to untangle the signal of global warming
0:44:41 > 0:44:44and the signal of these natural variations in the North Atlantic.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47But, at the moment, our models do predict that
0:44:47 > 0:44:51this whole area will cool again over the next five to ten years.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53So, the Icelanders might be right -
0:44:53 > 0:44:56the whole area might start to cool in the next few years.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00And can you say it will go back to being as cool as it was?
0:45:01 > 0:45:05No, I don't...I wouldn't be confident of saying that at all.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11Whatever the impact of climate change may be on natural cooling,
0:45:11 > 0:45:15there's no doubt that warmer seas are disastrous for the birds.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20To find out why, I went to see an ornithologist
0:45:20 > 0:45:22who's advised the Scottish Government
0:45:22 > 0:45:25on sea birds and fisheries, Bob Furness.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31Changes in temperature have a huge impact on plankton,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33not only on the abundance of plankton
0:45:33 > 0:45:35but on the composition of the species that are there.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39Plankton are microscopic organisms
0:45:39 > 0:45:42at the bottom of the marine food chain.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46They're made up of two types - algae, known as phytoplankton,
0:45:46 > 0:45:48and tiny animals called zooplankton.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52As the sea temperature rises,
0:45:52 > 0:45:55the plant-based phytoplankton will bloom.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59But the sort of zooplankton which the fish like to eat
0:45:59 > 0:46:03are replaced by a much less nutritious warm water species.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07Long-term monitoring of the plankton has shown
0:46:07 > 0:46:09that warming sea temperatures has resulted in
0:46:09 > 0:46:12about a 70% decline in the copepod,
0:46:12 > 0:46:16which is the favourite food of sand eels and young herring,
0:46:16 > 0:46:19so this is clearly a vital link in the system.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22And it seems that warming seas are also bringing in
0:46:22 > 0:46:25new predators at the top of the food chain,
0:46:25 > 0:46:26like the mackerel.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30It appears that mackerel are changing their migration patterns
0:46:30 > 0:46:32in association with changes in water temperature.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35So, in recent years, they've been tending to go further north
0:46:35 > 0:46:37than they used to do in the past.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40Predatory fish feeding on small fish like sand eels
0:46:40 > 0:46:42change the food supply for sea birds,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45and my guess is that the mackerel predation impact
0:46:45 > 0:46:49is really quite an important part of the story.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52The Alsey puffin hunters believe this too.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56And at Peterhead, on the east coast of Scotland,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59there is evidence of a mackerel boom.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02The catch landed by Scottish boats in the last 15 years
0:47:02 > 0:47:03has nearly trebled.
0:47:05 > 0:47:07This boat has returned from the North Sea
0:47:07 > 0:47:09with 800 tonnes of mackerel.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12Catches on this scale are no longer unloaded by hand.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17Instead, they're pumped direct from the ship to the processing factory.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22Well, just look at the number of fish that are here.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24Like columns of mackerel coming out of that.
0:47:27 > 0:47:32In 2014, over a quarter of a million tonnes of mackerel
0:47:32 > 0:47:34were caught by British trawlers.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38You look at this, and you think
0:47:38 > 0:47:42the competition this represents the sand eels,
0:47:42 > 0:47:46these are the rivals that the sea birds have got to compete with.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53The impact of the mackerel story in Iceland could be even greater.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58Their annual catch has gone from next to nothing 15 years ago
0:47:58 > 0:48:01to over 160,000 tonnes today.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05But is it really possible that these shifts in the ocean regime
0:48:05 > 0:48:09are simply in line with natural fluctuations?
0:48:09 > 0:48:13I went to see the director of the Icelandic Marine Research Institute,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16Johann Sigurjonsson.
0:48:16 > 0:48:20The trouble with the...with the sea birds,
0:48:20 > 0:48:23I think it is quite evident that it can be linked
0:48:23 > 0:48:26to temperature changes,
0:48:26 > 0:48:29changes in temperature regime.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32- So, can you say...? - So, how exactly it...
0:48:32 > 0:48:34I mean, what exactly has happened...
0:48:34 > 0:48:36- Is more difficult. - That's difficult.
0:48:36 > 0:48:41I mean, although the decline in the sea birds is taking place,
0:48:41 > 0:48:45that does not necessarily mean that it's an unhealthy ocean.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48It's just a variability in nature.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53So, I mean, in my view, I would take that...point of view
0:48:53 > 0:48:56before concluding that there is something unhealthy going on.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59So, you have to accept failure of sea bird populations
0:48:59 > 0:49:01as a natural event?
0:49:02 > 0:49:04Yeah.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08It...in my view, it is a natural event.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12I think...I think everything points to that direction.
0:49:13 > 0:49:15Other people in Iceland thought the same -
0:49:15 > 0:49:19that sea temperature changes are a natural phenomenon.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23But elsewhere, not everyone agrees.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27I think the idea that sea bird population changes
0:49:27 > 0:49:29are all simply a result of natural cycles
0:49:29 > 0:49:32and that we'll return to the same point that we were at in the past
0:49:32 > 0:49:34is a very naive view.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38There are so many human impacts superimposed
0:49:38 > 0:49:39on these natural cycles
0:49:39 > 0:49:41that it's very unlikely that the populations
0:49:41 > 0:49:43that we end up with in the future
0:49:43 > 0:49:45will be the same as what we had in the past.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50Ian Mitchell is from the body that advises the government
0:49:50 > 0:49:51on nature conservation.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57In 2000, he ran the last comprehensive census
0:49:57 > 0:49:58of British sea birds
0:49:58 > 0:50:01and has a picture of what the future might bring.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05In terms of whether there's enough food around for them to eat...
0:50:06 > 0:50:09..that depends on what happens.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11The one sort of hope is,
0:50:11 > 0:50:15even if our sea temperatures continue to warm like they are
0:50:15 > 0:50:18and we lose species like the sand eel,
0:50:18 > 0:50:19which they feed on at the moment,
0:50:19 > 0:50:23we may get new warm water species in,
0:50:23 > 0:50:25like the anchovy, for instance.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29We'd expect the Shiants, because its already quite far north,
0:50:29 > 0:50:34probably to retain northern species, like the puffin,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37but as the UK warms over the next century,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40we may end up with Orkney and Shetland
0:50:40 > 0:50:42and the most northern tip of Scotland
0:50:42 > 0:50:44being the only place that we can see certain species.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48So in the future, it seems likely that
0:50:48 > 0:50:51the make-up of our sea bird world will shift.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56Birds from the Mediterranean are already off the Cornish coast,
0:50:56 > 0:51:00chasing the sardines and anchovies attracted by warming seas.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07Less adaptable specialist shallow feeders, like the kittiwake,
0:51:07 > 0:51:08may continue to decline.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14Deep divers, like the razorbills, guillemots and puffins,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16will probably cope better.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21One thing, though, seems increasingly certain -
0:51:21 > 0:51:24the world in which the sea birds live is changing.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35There is a resident on the Shiants that clearly shows
0:51:35 > 0:51:38how man has already had an impact on ocean life -
0:51:38 > 0:51:39the fulmar.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46The best flyer on the islands,
0:51:46 > 0:51:49it first appeared here in the early-20th century.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53When I came here as a boy in the '60s,
0:51:53 > 0:51:56the fulmar population was doing well
0:51:56 > 0:51:58both here and throughout the North Atlantic.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03The fascinating thing about the fulmar
0:52:03 > 0:52:06is that it's almost the only bird that has thrived
0:52:06 > 0:52:08because of what people have done to the sea.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12With the growth of industrial fishing in the early-20th century,
0:52:12 > 0:52:16they boomed, feeding on the offal and all the discards.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25When quotas were introduced in the 1970s,
0:52:25 > 0:52:27fishermen were forced to dump
0:52:27 > 0:52:30thousands of tonnes of disallowed catch into the sea.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35And on the back of that, in the '90s, fulmar numbers peaked.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39But as industrialised fishing has shrunk
0:52:39 > 0:52:42and discard bans have come into effect,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45the fulmar population has gone into decline.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51But the fulmar's not the only bird
0:52:51 > 0:52:55whose fortunes have depended on what man has done to the sea.
0:52:55 > 0:53:00The great skua first arrived here during the boom 30 years ago
0:53:00 > 0:53:02and is also now struggling to survive.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06Nesting on the ground away from the shore,
0:53:06 > 0:53:08I've always admired its utter fearlessness
0:53:08 > 0:53:11in defence of its territory.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13HE LAUGHS
0:53:18 > 0:53:22The bird is a brilliant opportunist, a pirate of the skies,
0:53:22 > 0:53:24getting its food however it can.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29This footage shows typical skua behaviour,
0:53:29 > 0:53:33harassing a gannet in flight until it drops its prey.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39But as the crisis has taken hold,
0:53:39 > 0:53:43the skua has started preying increasingly on other sea birds.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47In one colony, a few hundred pairs
0:53:47 > 0:53:50recently killed tens of thousands of smaller birds,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53like the kittiwake, during a single season.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04But perhaps the clearest vision of a future sea bird world
0:54:04 > 0:54:06can be glimpsed on a small island
0:54:06 > 0:54:09just a mile off the east coast of Scotland.
0:54:09 > 0:54:10That is a... Wow.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16Bass Rock has been home to a nobleman, prisoners and sheep...
0:54:17 > 0:54:22..but now it's entirely colonised by a single sea bird.
0:54:23 > 0:54:27150,000 of them.
0:54:27 > 0:54:28Look at that, look at that!
0:54:28 > 0:54:30It's just a universe of birds.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38It's the biggest colony of northern gannets in the world.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46Well, I've never seen anything like it in my life.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58The gannet population here has increased dramatically
0:54:58 > 0:55:00throughout the 20th century
0:55:00 > 0:55:04and in the last ten years has more than doubled.
0:55:04 > 0:55:05I've never seen anything like that,
0:55:05 > 0:55:10I've never ever seen anything...so enveloping.
0:55:10 > 0:55:12You know, it's not that you're coming to see
0:55:12 > 0:55:13a bit of nature over there -
0:55:13 > 0:55:15it's just like you're embedded in the whole thing.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20With a wing span of up to 6ft,
0:55:20 > 0:55:22this spectacular creature is
0:55:22 > 0:55:24the largest sea bird in the British Isles.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30They come here every spring after wintering in the Mediterranean
0:55:30 > 0:55:32and off the west coast of Africa.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Gannets are incredibly successful animals.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42They can travel huge distances in fishing trips,
0:55:42 > 0:55:46300, 400 miles out from here.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49They can dive shallow, they can dive relatively deep,
0:55:49 > 0:55:52they can take little prey, they can take big prey,
0:55:52 > 0:55:54so they are the great generalists,
0:55:54 > 0:55:57that anything the world throws at them
0:55:57 > 0:55:58they can take advantage of,
0:55:58 > 0:56:02and this is the result - you know, total abundance.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06In sharp contrast, when I was in Orkney,
0:56:06 > 0:56:10I saw kittiwake colonies that used to be teeming with birds
0:56:10 > 0:56:12now reduced to empty cliffs.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17If you think of the kittiwake, which is really specialised -
0:56:17 > 0:56:20it can only take sand eels or fish very like that,
0:56:20 > 0:56:24it can't dive, it can't travel that far,
0:56:24 > 0:56:26that they're stuck in their niche -
0:56:26 > 0:56:31but these guys, their niche is the whole ocean.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34They don't have a niche. They have a world.
0:56:34 > 0:56:36A gannet boom may well be
0:56:36 > 0:56:40an expression of the very problem the kittiwakes are suffering from -
0:56:40 > 0:56:43warm seas, big fish, lots of gannets,
0:56:43 > 0:56:47warm seas, fewer little fish, fewer kittiwakes.
0:56:49 > 0:56:54I mean, it's terrible to say so, but maybe this is like a weed.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57I mean, that's a spooky idea, isn't it?
0:56:57 > 0:56:59That these beautiful things are, themselves,
0:56:59 > 0:57:04symptoms of a system wobbling into the future.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15Is this really what the sea bird world is going to be like?
0:57:19 > 0:57:23The gannets are undoubtedly spectacular, aggressive,
0:57:23 > 0:57:25wide-ranging, adaptable...
0:57:27 > 0:57:29..but will we lose the wonderful variety
0:57:29 > 0:57:33of puffin and guillemot, razorbill and kittiwake
0:57:33 > 0:57:36and be left with a kind of bird monoculture
0:57:36 > 0:57:40of big bruisers like gulls and gannets?
0:57:44 > 0:57:47On the Shiants, over the last 50 years,
0:57:47 > 0:57:49it seems I've lived through
0:57:49 > 0:57:52a period of dazzling prosperity for the birds.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57But now we're clearly into an era of deep change.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00Local extinction may become the new normal.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06And while we're doing all we can for our sea birds on land,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09the horror, in my mind, is that the warmer seas
0:58:09 > 0:58:13may have pushed the world they rely on too far.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17The people who lived on the Shiants for thousands of years
0:58:17 > 0:58:18left a century ago
0:58:18 > 0:58:21in a world that could no longer sustain them.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25I only hope the birds aren't going to follow.