Seabirds are very susceptible to oil on the water, and high mortality has been observed where oil spills have affected areas where seabird concentrates on the water. Information on seabird concentrations areas (hot spots) and the factors governing their presence is therefore essential operational environmental information. Seabird concentrations on coastal waters in NE-Greenland are known around breeding colonies, which are located in high concentrations at polynyas, and from spring staging areas also mainly in polynyas.
However, while the knowledge on location of breeding colonies is fairly good, the number of birds in the colonies is mostly rough estimates as many have been observed only during surveys from aircraft. There is furthermore limited knowledge on the key foraging areas used by the colonies.
There is also limited information on concentrations of seabirds at sea off NE Greenland. However, some information exists from the seismic surveys and from tracking studies of e.g. little auks. In the migration season concentrations must be expected as vast numbers from breeding sites on Svalbard and to a lesser degree also from Russia migrate through the region both in spring and autumn. Important questions to answer are if these migrating seabirds stage in the area, and if they do when, where and why will important concentrations occur?
Knowledge on seabird occurrence is essential for preparing EIAs, contingency plans and oil spill sensitivity maps and projects on offshore concentrations and key foraging areas are proposed.