The Northern Fulmar Fulmarus glacialis is the most abundant seabird species on the Faroe Islands and is a significant consumer of marine resources. This diet study over the period 1998–2004 showed that fish was their major food source, supplemented with squid (Teuthida), polychaetes (Polychaeta), crustaceans (Crustacea) and scavenged prey. Among the fish, the small, lipid-rich Myctophid Glacier Lanternfish Benthosema glaciale dominated in frequency of occurrence and number of otoliths. Other common fish species were Norway Pout Trisopterus esmarkii, Blue Whiting Micromesistius poutassou, and Gadidae. Myctophic fish mostly occur in deeper water layers, and their high abundance in a surface feeding seabird is remarkable. As B. glaciale is not commercially exploited around the Faroes, competition between fisheries and Northern Fulmars appears limited.

The Northern Fulmar Fulmarus glacialis is known as a flexible feeder, utilising a wide range of fishes (Pisces), squid (Teuthida), macrozooplankton, scavenged prey discards and offal from commercial fisheries (Fisher 1952; Cramp & Simmons 1977; Camphuysen & van Franeker 1996, 1997; Camphuysen & Garthe 1997; Hamer et al. 1997; Phillips et al. 1999; Ojowski et al. 2001; Garthe et al. 2004; Harris et al. 2007; Lorenz & Seneveratne 2008).

The Northern Fulmar (hereafter ‘Fulmar’) is the most numerous seabird on the Faroes with an estimated breeding population of several 100,000 pairs (Bloch & Sørensen 1984), 16–26% of the northeast Atlantic population (Tasker 2004). Except for a short period in October, the species is present on the breeding cliffs all year around. The estimated number of birds around the Faroes was 1.3 million birds in April-June, 0.8 million in July-August, 0.9 million birds in September-November and 1.0 million in December-March; excluded in these estimates was an area to the west of the Faroes (Skov et al. 2002). Fulmars are believed to consume about half the food taken by the 21 seabird species occurring in Faroese waters (Olsen 2003; Gaard et al. 2002), potentially competing with local fisheries. At the same time, however, Fulmars themselves (adults, fledglings and eggs) are harvested for food by humans (Olsen & Nørrevang 2005), probably in the tens of thousands annually (B. Olsen pers. comm.). In spite of their importance to the Faroese community, few data exist on the local diet of the Fulmar. Hagerup (1926) argued that planktonic crustaceans (especially copepods) predominated in importance on the Faroes, linked other diet components to foraging of Fulmars in association with whales or fishing vessels, and considered fish a minor part of the summer diet in this part of the Atlantic. Salomonsen (1935) probably relied on Hagerup in stating that the Fulmar diet chiefly consisted of pelagic crustaceans (Copepoda), small cephalopods, and offal from whaling and fisheries. There are no more recent data in the literature for Faroese Fulmar diet; this study surveyed stomach contents of Fulmars collected on the Faroe Islands during 1998–2004.

The Save the North Sea Fulmar study group, Jens-Kjeld Jensen, Pól Jóhannis Simonsen and Maria Dam provided help in collecting the stomachs. Hjørdis Joensen, Sólveig Sørensen and Mardik Leopold assisted with the identification of otoliths and squid beaks. Part of the work for this study was funded by Amerada Hess, a PhD scholarship from Lunds University, Sweden and from a follow up Fulmar project supported by Chevron Upstream Europe.

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