Gannet colony recovers on Iceland’s Eldey island

Gannets appear to be increasing again on Eldey island, after their numbers declined sharply during the bird flu outbreak several years ago, mbl.is reports. A mbl.is journalist filmed the island covered in gannets during a recent helicopter flight.

A webcam on Eldey can also be used to monitor the birds. Their number is estimated at about 45,000 when the population is at its peak.

Eldey is Iceland’s largest gannet colony and one of the largest in Europe. The island has been protected since 1974. The last great auk was killed there in 1984, and the captain known as Eldeyjar-Hjalti became famous for being the first person to climb the island, in 1894.

Ornithologist Jóhann Óli Hilmarsson told mbl.is that the gannet is currently the only seabird species whose numbers are increasing. He said all other seabirds were declining.

The collapse of the gannet population on Eldey was reported in Morgunblaðið in 2022, when bird flu was considered the most likely explanation. Jóhann Óli said the population now appeared to have recovered from the disease, as had the falcon and the skua.

About 17,000 pairs of gannets are present on Eldey at the height of the season, according to Jóhann. Sigurður Harðarson, an electronics technician who manages the island’s webcam, likewise said the number of gannets had returned to normal levels after the sharp decline during the bird flu period.

Jóhann said he had also seen an increase in gannets on Skrúður, another island off eastern Iceland where the birds nest. Gannets breed in only a few locations, including several of the Vestmannaeyjar islands, Langanes and the Melrakkaslétta peninsula.

He attributed the increase partly to the gannet being the only seabird capable of feeding on mackerel. Mackerel, in turn, consume large quantities of sand eels, one of the main food sources for seabirds.

Eldey rises from the sea about 15 kilometres off Reykjanestá.