'Wind chaser' is a term used for the Yelkouan Shearwater (Garnija), a seabird that glides above the sea with the tips of its wings occasionally shearing the water surface.
Shearwaters differ from other seabirds in that they have developed a system to desalinate seawater, enabling them to spend days out at sea without fresh water.
At night the birds come back to their burrows at the cliffs to share the catch of the day with their chicks. However, this highly secretive bird chooses to fly back to its nest only when it is completely dark, to avoid threats from predators targeting its eggs and chicks.
Despite this highly developed sense of security, like many other wild bird species it has been affected by human activities. Rats attracted to food leftovers by campers, and illegal trapping and hunting are among factors that have caused a decline in their population.
Malta hosts 10 per cent of the world population of this species, which is considered to be in decline throughout the Mediterranean. Yelkouans have managed to breed in Malta within burrows and crevices safely tucked away along cliffs. But their population is declining, especially at Rdum tal-Madonna cliffs in L-Aħrax, Mellieħa, where a third of Malta's Shearwater population nests.
Maltese ornithologist John Borg, from Heritage Malta, has been studying these birds for over 30 years. Together with Birdlife Malta, he ventured into a project aimed at stemming the birds' decline.
The project became Malta's largest EU-funded conservation initiative, when four governmental bodies and three conservation organisations joined forces and launched the Life Yelkouan Shearwater Project in 2006.
After four years of hard work, the project has successfully helped reverse the decline of the Yelkouan Shearwater. The project has registered positive results since its first months.
Conservation efforts have targeted rat predation of eggs or chicks, light and noise pollution, illegal hunting and the birds' protection at sea. By early 2007, rat predation was totally eliminated as a result of a professional eradication programme, along with various clean-ups aimed at removing litter.
Disturbance to the colony was minimised by ensuring traffic was kept away from sensitive sites, as well as meeting site users, developers and authorities over ways of minimising coastal light pollution.
A notice to mariners by Transport Malta enforced a code of conduct for boats, reducing sea disturbance near the colony. The project employed a site warden to watch the site, discouraging illegal hunting and ferreting, whereas the Armed Forces patrolled the marine area off Rdum tal-Madonna, curtailing illegal hunting at sea.
A team of fishermen employed by the Capture Fisheries Division with the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs helped the project study the impact of long-line fishing on seabirds, to find effective ways to further decrease accidental catches.
Intensive scientific monitoring of the colony at night by Birdlife Malta and Heritage Malta helped assess the well-being of this seabird population and compare recent data collected from the colony to previous monitoring work.
As a result of minimised threats, the population of Yelkouan Shearwaters nesting at the colony has risen by 10 per cent. The population is now increasing in size every year.
Discovering this seabird's life at sea away from the Rdum tal-Madonna colony was another aspect this project focused on. Standardised boat surveys carried out every month for two years covered over 10,250 km around Malta and counted over 36,000 birds of a range of different species. This helped identify the Yelkouans' preferred marine sites located within a six-kilometre radius.
The RSPB (Birdlife UK) provided GPS data loggers, small tracking devices which were fitted for the first time worldwide to adult Yelkouans on their multiple feeding trips for up to five days before returning to feed their chicks.
These revealed important feeding sites for Yelkouans, including in-shore areas and offshore areas up to 285 km to the southeast and between Malta and Sicily. With the help of SPEA (Birdlife Portugal), rafting sites were identified up to 7 km from Rdum tal-Madonna, these being resting sites for birds before returning to their colonies.
Two other tracking devices - satellite tags on juvenile birds and geolocators on adults - were used for the first time on this species, deployed to track the Shearwaters' migration between August and October.
These devices have shown that juvenile Yelkouans migrate eastwards into the Mediterranean, with most making their way to the Aegean sea. Adults followed a similar pattern, but continued their journey to the Black Sea. This highlights the need for international efforts aimed at protecting this species.
Although the Life project will end this month, this will not mean an end to the protection of Malta's Shearwaters. A management plan for the EU protected site will guide future conservation work for the benefit of this and other protected species.
The project has also identified some of the important marine areas for the Yelkouan Shearwaters at Rdum tal-Madonna. These will be designated through standardised international criteria and will then be presented to the government, ultimately leading to the designation of Malta's first Marine Special Protection Areas, de-signed to protect the Yelkouan Shearwater.
Mr Barbara is project manager of the EU Life Yelkouan Shearwater Project. The project is a partnership initiative of four government authorities (Heritage Malta, Transport Malta, the Capture Fisheries Division, within the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs, and the Armed Forces of Malta) and three conservation organisations (Birdlife Malta, SPEA - Birdlife Portugal, and the RSPB - Birdlife UK). It is part-funded by the EU and receives financial contributions from HSBC and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. Copies of the project report 'Protecting Malta's wind chaser' can be downloaded from www.lifeshearwaterproject.org.mt.