The Malta Seabirds Project, funded by EU Life+, was launched this morning by Environment Minister Mario de Marco and BirdLife at the Phoenicia Hotel in Floriana.
The principal aim of the project is to identify areas at sea that are important to the survival and successful breeding of Maltese seabirds.
This will be done through the use of the latest technology available to track birds at sea, including Global Positioning System tags that can collect information about the birds' location thousands of miles from land.
Boat based observations will yield information about important feeding and resting areas at sea. This information will then be collated to identify Important Bird Areas within the 25 nautical mile Maltese Exclusive Fishing Zone.
Dr de Marco congratulated BirdLife and its partners for securing EU Life+ funding for the project, which, alongside three other successful Maltese initiatives was selected from over 700 projects proposed by other EU states last year.
The minister highlighted the importance of the project within the context of the overall challenge of conserving biodiversity, which was under pressure from human activities and factors such as climate change.
"But even though these threats are not unique to Malta, we have to be particularly vigilant. Malta also has the highest population density in the EU, which makes our biodiversity especially vulnerable to pressures from human activities," Dr de Marco has said.
"The project will gather scientific knowledge about the status of important seabird species, which will enable us to design measures for their conservation," he added.
BirdLife said the Maltese islands are internationally important breeding grounds to Cory's Shearwater Calonectris diomedea, Yelkouan Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan and European Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis.
On land, breeding colonies of these species enjoy a protected status as designated Special Protected Areas forming part of the Natura 2000 network.
However, Malta is obliged by the EC Birds Directive to protect also the marine habitat within its waters where these seabirds spend much of their lives.
"Little is known at present where the key foraging areas of the focal species are," Benjamin Metzger, head of research in the Life+ Malta Seabirds Project said.
The project, which is 50 per cent funded by the EU's Life unit, is the second in Malta focusing on seabirds, following the successful completion of the EU LIFE Yelkouan Shearwater Project in 2010. The project will follow up and expand its research on Malta's seabirds to identify important sites at sea for them. The project will work closely with Mepa, the authority responsible for the Natura 2000 network of protected areas in Malta, to propose these areas for designation as Marine Special Protected Areas.