vegaøyan world heritage
Bird life at Vega
Due to the importance of Vegaøyan and the wetland areas on Vega for various bird species, Vega is listed on the Birdlife Internationals list of the most important bird areas in Europe. The large shallow water areas around Vega and the wetland areas on the island provide the basis for good access to food for seabirds.
A total of 232 species have been observed in the area. Of these, around 110 are breeding species, which is a high number this far north. The area has good populations of loons and divers, cormorants, guillemots and eiders. A few years ago, around 2,800 pairs of cormorants nested in Vega, but the figure has also been as high as 4,000 pairs. Up to 2,000 pairs of these have nested in Nordvær near Skjærvær, which has thus been the world's largest breeding colony of this subspecies.
During the winter, many diving ducks and divers stay in the area. Black guillemots are another numerous breeding bird, with two of the country's largest colonies in the breakwater in Skjærvær and Bremstein.
Protected areas
The archipelago is an important migration area for eider ducks and greylag geese. The area is also an important staging area for barnacle geese that migrate from Scotland to Svalbard in the spring.
Several areas in Vegaøyan are protected as bird conservation areas, nature reserves and landscape conservation areas. The protection secures some of the country's most important nesting, breeding and wintering areas for seabirds. Registration of bird life in the archipelago in the 1970s and efforts to protect the areas through the coastal protection plan also formed an important part of the basis for applying for World Heritage status.
Resting place for geese
For several bird species, human activity has been important; the mowing of the small islands has provided important resting places for white-fronted geese migrating north or south, for breeding and for feathered geese. With the abandonment of the islands, these areas disappeared. This meant that the birds instead migrated to cultivated land on the main island of Vega, which led to extensive research under the auspices of NINA from the mid-1980s.
Research has shown that the Greylag Goose has changed its migration times so much that it is now difficult to hunt it before the fall migration starts. As a result of this, Helgeland has a regional management plan which has led to somewhat less grazing damage and better hunting results. Two important measures are an early start to the hunt and free zones on the island so that the geese can rest from the hunting pressure for parts of the day. The aim is to postpone the migration south in the fall so that more geese can be harvested from the large population.
Source
Vegaøyan World Heritage. Cultural history travel book by Inga E. Næss and Rita Johansen.