THE Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has called on Greenland to stop hunters slaughtering seabirds after research linked the destruction with declining populations across Europe.

Every summer the country’s thousands of hunters attack the roosting colonies of seabirds such as kittiwakes, eider ducks and guillemots, often shooting them with semi-automatic weapons and taking their eggs.

With the 2009 season approaching, the RSPB has called on the Greenland government to impose restrictions. It warns that, since many of the targeted species aremigratory, the destruction will have an impact on populations of birds in many other countries around the North Atlantic, including Britain.

The fate of the Greenland seabird colonies is emerging as one of the world’s greatest but least-known wildlife scandals.

The problem centres on Greenland’s long hunting tradition. Only about 2,000 of the 56,000-strong population hunt for food or to sell meat, but about 10,000 others hunt just for sport, often pursuing whales, polar bears and seals as well as seabirds.

Hasse Hedemand, of the Greenland conservation group Timmiaq, said: “The problem is that you have traditional attitudes towards hunting combined with modern technology like speedboats and semi-automatic weapons. Hunters get right into seabird colonies and think nothing of shooting hundreds of birds.”

Among those calling for hunting restrictions is Graham Wynne, chief executive of the RSPB. He said: “Eider ducks have declined by 80% in 40 years and the 150,000 Brünnich’s guillemots, seen at a breeding colony in Uummannaq, northern Greenland 60 years ago, have completely gone.”

“The record of seabird protection in Greenland is a story of the destruction of nature through an unwillingness to manage hunting, resulting in seriously damaged populations of many seabird species.”

Times Recommends

• 'Radio Rancid' is scourge of Obama
• French gulp as global warming alters wines
• Colton, the barefoot boy bandit, outfoxes sheriffs