Once you're below that, the population is not able to maintain itself. This is what we've seen the past three to four years. |
The main reason this was a bad year was the spring storms. They arrived when the birds were laying eggs. They dumped sand on the beach and washed away nests. The protective fencing we put up was washed away and so were all the eggs. |
They are producing about one chick per pair and the number scientists have determined they need for the population to be stable is 1.24 per pair. What we're hoping for is that this is just a blip in the map and that populations will all recover. But before the populations all recover we have to be very vigilant. |