Puffling Season
The SEA LIFE Trust Beluga Whale Sanctuary began assisting with the annual Puffling Patrol to rescue baby puffins in 2019 after opening our Visitor Centre on the island. Our role in the program is to work alongside the community and other organizations to rescue, rehabilitate and release injured or oiled pufflings (baby puffins).
The Vestmannaeyjar archipelago is home to Iceland´s largest breeding colony of Atlantic Puffins during the summer months with more than 700,000 pairs of puffins migrating to the islands to raise their young. At the end of the summer, when the pufflings (baby puffins) are leaving their cliffside burrows for the first time to fly to the ocean, they can become disoriented by lights or blown off course into the town, where they need a bit of help to get safely back to the sea. Each summer during this season the town of Vestmannaeyjar, along with our team, volunteers from Naturastofa Sudurlands and Þekkingarsetur Vestmannaeyjar, work together to find as many birds as possible in the town or harbor, assess their health and get them back to the ocean as soon as possible.
Some of the pufflings found are oiled or injured and need extra care. Our team takes in any oiled or injured birds for care and rehabilitation during this time. Care can range from a few days of feeding underweight or downy birds, to weeks of medical care and oil cleaning.
Puffling Rehabilitation
2025 Puffling Season
This puffling season 276 oiled, injured or underweight pufflings were accepted for care in our hospital. Across the island, more than 7,000 pufflings were rescued and released by volunteers and town residents.
The pufflings we cared for came in with a range of issues including:
- 77 pufflings were injured
- 32 were oiled or dirty
- 65 were underweight
- 134 were downy
We received more down feathered birds than ever before. Higher number of down feathered birds correlates with longer development / rehabilitation times.
The average length of stay in care was 11 days with a maximum of 110 birds in hospital at one time.
During the season, which lasted from July 29 to September 29, the rehabilitation and care took approximately:
- Over 2,500 hours of labour (staff and volunteers)
- 138 kg of fish to feed pufflings
- Over 300 avian flu tests
- 2,355,419 ISK in medical and cleaning supplies
Total projected costs for the puffling season care is 8,933,643 ISK (roughly 53,658 GBP) not including ongoing care for four pufflings who became permanent residents.