BIRD RESEARCH ABOARD OUR AÞENA
There is a lot of life in our bay also during the winter. Unusually many humpbacks have been seen this year as well as the winter resident sea birds. Right now research is being done on the diet of sea birds around the coast of Iceland, as little is known about what these species feed on during the winter.
North East Iceland Nature Center is responsible of the research on guillemots in Skjálfandi Bay. Two days ago they went out on our boat Aþena to collect the samples needed. This is all a part of a larger study investigating the diet of seabirds around the whole country. Four Nature Centers in Iceland are involved in the project along with other scientists, which did similar research expeditions at nearly the same time, from four different locations.
"We're trying to get a complete picture of the winter feeding pattern of seabirds here in Iceland," said Þorkell Lindberg Þórarinsson, director of the North East Iceland Nature Center. "Little is known about the winter feeding and it has not been investigated in recent years. Therefore we think it is a good time to launch this investigation now and we got support from the Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources.”
The birds caught were weighed and cut open to reveal what they had eaten. They all seemed to be in good condition. "The common guillemot is full of small fish, most likely sand eel, and the razorbills had more krill. And the stomachs were full in most birds, "said Yann Kolbeinsson biologist by North East Iceland Nature Center.
Every bird is carefully dealt with and will be sent to Reykjavík for further research.
Source: Information and pictures are from the national news' video clip on ruv.is (click the link to see the video).
Researchers investigating sea birds on board our boat Aþena.
