Seagulls flock to 'hotel' in Norway's far east

DW (English)

A fisherman has created urban lodgings for gull species threatened by climate change, predators and avian flu in their natural habitats. It's booked out.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to the Seagull Hotel in Vadu.

00:06There's no room service and only self check-in,

00:09but the accommodation is a popular choice among seagulls and other seabirds.

00:14It's been there for three years now. The first year there was 55 nests.

00:19Last year it was 74 and this year we have 76.

00:25Fisherman Jan Vidar Hansen built the hotel so seabirds could nest safely.

00:32For puffins and other birds, the cliffs in Norway's easternmost town of Vadu used to be a haven,

00:39but nowadays seabirds here are under siege from climate change, predators and disease.

00:4670 to 90% of the seabirds is gone during the last 30 years.

00:55Lack of food, during the bird flu, that's been pretty hard the last three years there.

01:01Vadu is known for its birding tourism. A short boat ride away lies Honøya Island.

01:09Thousands of bird watchers flock to this uninhabited spot,

01:13which is home to 100,000 seabirds during breeding season.

01:17But the island's seabird population has also declined dramatically.

01:22Food has become scarce due to overfishing and rising water temperatures in the Barents Sea.

01:27Fish that need colder water are being pushed further north,

01:31and the migrating pattern of other species have been disturbed.

01:35It's a bit scary to see that there is...

01:39I was seeing birds that usually eat fish on the tundra,

01:43that they start eating berries, because they don't have their normal food.

01:51Tourism can also have a negative impact.

01:54Visitors can cause the birds stress, disturbing them when they're nesting.

01:59But closing the island to bird lovers is not really an option.

02:09It would have a huge impact on Vadu's economy.

02:12Every small business in the town, it's depending on the tourists to come and visit the island,

02:19and stay in the town, and shop, and use the gas station, and use the small restaurants.

02:26And some smaller gull species have actually moved closer to people,

02:32in search of protection from non-human predators, like the guests in this bird hotel.

02:37Some 300 kittiwakes used to nest in Vadu.

02:41Now there are about 1,300.

02:44The bird hotel is helping birds, and it has another bonus too.

02:48When you have them on the building you're living in, it's a 24-7 noise.

02:52So people are suffering about that, and also the smell of it.

02:56So try to build a big hotel that we can get them out of the centre,

03:00to still be available for the tourists.

03:03And, yeah, just give them a safe haven to nest.

03:09Jan Vidar Hansen hopes the local council will agree to build a bigger hotel complex in the future.

03:18of the victorious chamber.

03:19Both of whom now have our 캠 toda areenkeeping everywhere,

03:21they work defence £7,000 of the city at The Breakdown,

03:22and keep burning daily in the US as well.

03:26Or even though it's a river between a girl and a halfagraph csak past

03:28and aACKPAC part, they won the passengers of the people that we have on Youtube and be very lucky.

03:30And we need to hear some air-poresさい stuff on ark there.

03:32We need to hear some air Historical &ds utilis about that just like the rain.

03:34And the movies are in their homes.

03:36Of choice that, we need to be prepared for tourist purposes.

03:37Huh?

03:41The연 how we're taking installations and the writers of their city,

03:43well, they need to work invisраф między.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended