Red alert for the Yelkouan Sheareaters of Istanbul!

For the last five days, tens of thousands of Yelkouan Shearwaters are foraging and feeding in the center of Istanbul. Although, ca. 75,000-90,000 individuals have been recorded in Bosporus in early February, this number of foraging birds has not been encountered during this season. This is the good news, but unfortunately, this congregation brought also a shoreline by-catch problem which was not recorded before in Turkey at this magnitude. Tens of individuals of Yelkouan shearwaters are caught from the shoreline over the last two days.