WWF in the Arctic: Barents Sea

More than 40 species of marine birds breed in their millions along the coasts of the Barents Sea - many of them in spectacular colonies. Vast stocks of fish, zooplankton and amphipods associated with subsurface sea ice constitute the basis for some of the largest seabird aggregations in the world.

The largest colonies are found on the west coast of Svalbard, on Bjørnøya, and along the North-Norwegian coast. In total, the summer population in the Barents Sea Ecoregion exceeds 20 million birds.

Four seabird species - kittiwake, Brünnich's guillemot, little auk and puffin - make up nearly 85 percent of all breeding seabirds in the region. Significant shares of the global populations of king eider, Steller's eider and arctic tern live in the Barents Sea.

Many birds, in particular auks, spend the winter at sea, while large numbers of common eider gather in the coastal areas of Finnmark and Kola. Shallow coastal areas are important for ducks, geese and waders, which occur in high numbers along the Kola Penninsula, the White Sea and the Pechora Sea after the breeding season.

Even today, scientists have relatively limited knowledge about the ecology of many species of seabirds in the ecoregion and their distribution during winter.