---
title: "90 000 Yelkouan Shearwaters flying through the Bosphorus in four hours may equal the species’ total population"
---

# 90 000 Yelkouan Shearwaters flying through the Bosphorus in four hours may equal the species’ total population

In the course of the Bosphorus Coastal Count Marathon by the [Yelkouan Shearwater Project Turkey](http://yelkouanshearwater.org/en/) 90 000 [Vulnerable](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3937) Yelkouan Shearwaters *Puffinus yelkouan* were counted flying south in four hours on 5 February 2014 in the strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea ([click here](http://yelkouanshearwater.org/en/new-record/)).  Birds flying north were not included in the count.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Yelkouan/yelkouans flying s.jpg)

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Yelkouan/yelkouan flying s.jpg)

  Yelkouan Shearwaters

 Following the 73 000 birds counted on 4 February 2012 (also reported as 75 000) and 53 000 in 2011, this new count approaches the maximum value for the estimated population in the Mediterranean Basin: “[f]igures point to a total of 15,337-30,519 pairs equating to 46,000-92,000 individuals based on a population assessment covering the species's [sic] entire range.” ([click here](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3937))

 Yelkouan Shearwater Project Turkey aims at determining seasonal changes in the movements and numbers of Yelkouan Shearwaters in the [Sea of Marmara](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Marmara), and in the two straits linking it to the Aegean (Dardanelles) and Black ([Bosphorus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosphorus)) Seas.

 The Yelkouan Shearwater has been proposed for listing within the Albatross and Petrel Agreement ([click here](http://www.acap.aq/index.php/en/component/content/article/14-news/latest-news/1417-report-of-acap-s-seventh-meeting-of-its-advisory-committee-now-available)).

 Photographs from Yelkouan Shearwater Project Turkey. 

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 March 2014*