Balearic Shearwater - Status

Puffinus mauretanicus

Status: annual visitor.

Balearic Shearwaters are only known to breed on the Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean. There is a known breeding population of only 2,000 – 2,500 pairs, which makes it one of the most vulnerable seabirds in the world. Post breeding dispersal has regularly resulted in a proportion visiting the Bay of Biscay and south-west Britain and Ireland.

A specimen housed in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, USA, collected in Pembrokeshire waters in September 1900, was the first to be recorded in the county.

 It was next recorded when one was seen from a boat near The Smalls on the 7th July 1955. Balearic Shearwaters were then noted in 11 years between 1960 and 1975 and annually from 1980.