Visiting Zino’s Petrel breeding colony requires authorisation

Visiting Zino’s Petrel breeding colony requires authorisation

Wind Birds is a licensed company to run night tours to hear and sometimes see the silhouettes of Zino’s Petrel Pterodroma madeira near their breeding colony. To follow the law - [Decreto Legislativo Regional nº15/2013/M] (https://joram.madeira.gov.pt/joram/1serie/Ano%20de%202013/ISerie-057-2013-05-14.pdf) we, as a company need to apply to this license annually and that is what we do! This law also states, on its article 19º, that this authorisation is required to anyone who visits any breeding colonies of pelagic seabirds and, article 21º forbids the use of recorded calls, flashes and high intensity lights when visiting the breeding colonies. This authorisation to visit the breeding colonies of any pelagic seabird must be solicited at the Instituto das Florestas e Conservação da Natureza da Madeira (IFCN-Madeira). Unfortunately we keep meeting people close to the breeding area of Zino’s Petrels who do not have any credencial or authorisation to be there and it is not our duty to tell them they can not be there but if they are disturbing our tour or the birds we will definitely have to intervene. It would be nice if the IFCN-Madeira patrol the area more often and avoid this disturbance on such a rare seabird as Zino’s Petrels Pterodroma madeira