As tourism intensifies at the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, the scientist behind one of Australia's longest-running seabird studies has warned the creatures are at greater risk than ever before.
Gearing up to head to the Abrolhos for his 30th season, marine ecologist Chris Surman said development at the Abrolhos had the potential to destroy internationally important nesting sites.
Dr Surman urged government bodies and tourism developers to remember the area's importance as a hotspot for ground-nesting seabirds.
Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) has confirmed it is already aware of several "conceptual tourism proposals" for the newly declared Houtman Abrolhos National Park.
With tourism heating up in the national park, Dr Surman urged government bodies and tourism developers to remember the area's importance as a hotspot for ground-nesting seabirds.
In particular Dr Surman discouraged tourism development at Pelsaert Island in the Abrolhos Southern Group.
He said the 12-kilometre-long Pelsaert Island was one of only three places in the world where threatened lesser noddies nested and, during nesting season, was home to 80 per cent of Australia's brown noddies and 50 per cent of Australia's sooty terns.
Risk of trampled nests
The birds nest in mangroves, low-lying bushes and in ground burrows making them particularly vulnerable.
Dr Surman said human presence could cause birds to abandon their nests and chicks, or at least temporarily fly away from nests, leaving chicks vulnerable to predation by gulls and skinks.
Human visitors could also unwittingly trample ground nests. Structures such as boats and pontoons could interfere with bird flight paths, disorienting the birds and causing collisions.
Dr Surman said lighting also played havoc with birds, particularly chicks that would flock to light sources by their hundreds.
"The lights are all that the birds see so they get disorientated and, instead of flying out to sea, they are attracted to the lights," he said.
"Tourism development can definitely work at the Abrolhos but developing tourism on or adjacent to this internationally important seabird nesting area would be devastating to these birds."
Process for development
DBCA expects a management plan for the Houtman Abrolhos Islands National Park and the surrounding Fish Habitat Protection Area to be completed by the end of the year.
Once the management plan is complete, the department will welcome expressions of interest to canvass potential tourism opportunities and development.
"Any proposed development on or near Pelsaert Island will need to address potential impacts to biodiversity values including seabirds," a DBCA spokesperson said in a written statement.
"In terms of overnight camping, DBCA is currently monitoring camping activity and will make recommendations in the draft management plan about camping."
30 years of study
Dr Surman began studying Abrolhos seabirds as a postgraduate student who borrowed his dad's yacht to reach the Abrolhos Islands for six-month study stints.
Camped under an old jetty at the islands he quickly came to realise the international importance of Pelsaert Island as a nesting place for seabirds.
It prompted Dr Surman to continue self-funding his research since the completion of his postdoctoral studies in 2001.
With his own money, an occasional crowdfunding campaign, and through lifts by fishermen, Dr Surman has returned to the Abrolhos every year for 30 years to study the seabirds.
He has continued to monitor some individual birds that return to the same nest site, in the same pair, to breed for more than two decades.
