A planning application has been submitted to create a seabird reserve at Plémont, to protect Jersey's last remaining puffins.

The Birds On The Edge partnership has put forward these plans, which involve placing a special 1km fence in a specific area in the north coast, covering 0.03% of the island.

With only six puffins left in Jersey, the hope is that this new seabird sanctuary, which would be equipped with special anti-burrowing features to protect rats and ferrets getting in, will protect them from predators and allow them to breed. 

If plans are approved, Jersey would become the first in Europe to have a seabird reserve. 

£5 million has been secured in off-island funding to put up and maintain this fence for 20 years. 

razorbills (left), guillemot chick (middle), puffins (right)

Cristina Sellares, Project Officer for Birds On The Edge, tells us it is vital Jersey takes this step to protect our wildlife: 

"Numbers have declined dramatically, now we have only six puffins left in Jersey. We had eight last year and sadly we lost one of pairs this year. The

"The razorbills, there's only 10 - 12 pairs left and the guillemot went extinct 20 -30 years ago.

"Populations are at a very critical level and they just carry on declining, to the point we believe that in one more generation perhaps, we will have none left."

Plémont puffin sculptures

A consultation inviting islanders to have their say on the potential development has been running since last year. 

Cristina Sellares says feedback from this has had a direct impact on the planning application: 

"We do believe that the community supports this project in a big majority, however there have been concerns perhaps of the look of a fence down the cliff. 

"We have worked really hard to mitigate the visual impact of this project by moving the fence down very far away from the footpath,by changing the colour scheme so it will blend in and reducing its length.

"The originally proposal was for around 3km of fence, now it is less than 1km. We have worked with the community to understand the concerns and work with them to produce a project that can deliver but is also acceptable to the community."

Puffin with a mouthful, credit: Romano Da Costa

The Birds On The Edge partnership said the application has been submitted to the government, but this has not yet been put on on the planning website, as it can take up to 10 days to update.

Channel 103 readers and listeners will be kept up to date on the latest developments.