GRIMSEY ISLAND, Iceland — Puffins are in trouble. The birds have been in precipitous decline, especially since the 2000s, both in Iceland and across many of their Atlantic habitats.

"Some years the [puffin] eggs don't hatch, and the chicks only survive for a short time. I was in the Westman Islands last week, for example, and we found a whole lot of tiny, newly-hatched pufflings ...

Official records indicate that in an average year, hunters in Iceland catch at least 260,000 puffins by this method, and about a quarter of those come from the Westman Islands.

GRIMSEY ISLAND, Iceland — Puffins are in trouble. The birds have been in precipitous decline, especially since the 2000s, both in Iceland and across many of their Atlantic habitats.

Breiðavík, ICELAND - We are heading along the northwestern coast of this rugged, chilly, wind-swept and rainy North Atlantic island to see where the plump doll-like seabirds called puffins breed ...

Throwing thousands of baby puffins off a cliff is a yearly tradition for the people of Iceland's Westman Islands. It's part of what's known as "puffling season" and is a crucial life-saving endeavor.

And on the Westman Islands off Iceland's south coast—home to the world's largest Atlantic puffin colony—breeding has been a "total failure" since 2005, according to the South Iceland Nature ...

Our visit to the island of Heimaey, in the Westman Islands, a ferry ride off Iceland, gave us a chance to rescue puffin chicks during ‘puffling season.’ Updated Sept. 28, 2024 at 6:02 a.m ...