SEO/BirdLife and the Biodiversity Foundation organized on March 15 and 16 a workshop on Seabirds for experts within the INDEMARES project. The workshop was held at the Institute of Marine Sciences (CSIC) in Barcelona, and included a practical boat trip from Mataró.

SEO/BirdLife and the Biodiversity Foundation organized on March 15 and 16 a workshop on Seabirds for experts within the INDEMARES project. The workshop was held at the Institute of Marine Sciences (CSIC) in Barcelona, and included a practical boat trip from Mataró.

Several partners of the project participated in the meeting, the CSIC, Oceana, WWF Spain, Altinak, CEMMA, SEO/BirdLife and the Biodiversity Foundation, as well as CIRCE and Submón as collaborators of INDEMARES. During the workshop, the different methodologies on seabird censuses, how data should be collected during their shipments at sea or how to correctly identify the most frequent species in our waters, among many other actions, were shared.

During the outing, different species of seabirds could be observed, some of them very curious such as puffins or parasitic pagaló.

The great variety of marine environments and geographical areas of Spain determines its great diversity of seabirds. More than 20 species of these birds breed regularly in Spanish territory, some of which have their main breeding enclaves here, such as the Balearic shearwater or the Audouin’s gull. In addition to these, many others mainly from northern Europe use Spanish waters throughout their migratory journeys or during the winter.

Defining the areas to be protected based on where these birds are found is one of the main objectives of the LIFE + INDEMARES project, which has been the subject of work during these days.