(Snake) Pipefish Invasion Store
Havnål - Entelurus
aequoraeus
Pipefish
sp, dropped by gulls, Skogsøy, 17 April 2006
During
the last couple of years the Pipefish population seems to have
exploded, I seem to see them everywhere and they would appear to form a
significant part of the diet for many fish eating birds - from
Kristiansund a in the north to Tananger in the south and even offshore
on
the Sleipner and Kristin fields (latter is 65 degrees north).
In the past I would occasionally see pipefish being
plucked up
from the surface by feeding gulls, nowadays this seems to be a daily
occurence. There are reports of pipefish being used as nesting material
by seabirds - something that must indicate their poor nutritional value
and they certainly seem to be hard to swallow, requiring a lot of head
shaking and struggling before they finally go down.
This phenomenon does not seem to be restricted to SW Norway; during a
trip back home to Northumberland in the summer of 2006 there were huge
numbers of pipefish along the shores and in the rock pools - something
I rarely experienced as a child in the same area.
Even the fish I catch have stomachs full of pipefish. Something must be
happening to the ecosystem to cause this massive increase in pipefish
numbers - and from what I can find out it seems that this is due to
global warming. Warmer waters in the North Atlantic have led to a vast
increase in the numbers of pipefish. A link to some more about this can
be found here
and here.
Reports I have read have indicated that terns and small gulls
experience problems feeding on these fish - especially when they then
give these to nestlings. However, pipefish can grow to quite a size and
even large gulls can have difficulties with them. Often gulls are seen
flying around with the tail of a partially swallowed pipefish
at least 15 minutes after capture.
Herring Gull with partially swallowed pipefish, Skogsøy, SW
Norway
September 2007
Below are a few record shots of various species of birds having
difficulty swallowing these strange fish.
igiscoping,
digibinning, bird photography, DSLR
Blacl-legged
Kittiwake catching pipefish, near Kristin platform (65 degrees
latitude), April 2007
Red-breasted Merganser / Siland, Alvheim, January 2007
Black-legged Kittiwake / Krykkje, Sleipner, February 2007
The tail of a pipefish can be seen protruding from the bird's beak.
Eurasian Shag / Toppskarv, Tananger, 31 January 2007
Above pictures taken with
a
Canon EOS400D with a Sigma 70-300mm telephoto lens
bird photography, DSLR
