Report of the Workshop on Seabird Ecological Quality Indicator (WKSEQUIN)

• The Workshop to develop a Seabird Ecological QUality INdicator (WKSEQUIN)was requested by OSPARʹs Biodiversity Committee (BDC). The Workshop wasorganised by the ICES Working Group on Seabird Ecology (WGSE), incollaboration with the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and theGerman Delegation on the BDC. WKSEQUIN was held in Lisbon on 8–9 March2008 and hosted by Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves (SPEA), theBirdLife International Partner in Portugal.• The aim of the workshop was to continue the development previously carried outby WGSE, of an EcoQO on Seabird population trends as an index of seabird communityhealth, and in doing so, to produce at least one EcoQO with its associatedindicator, target and limit, as an example of what others might look like.• WKSEQUIN proposed a single EcoQO: Changes in breeding seabird abundance shouldbe within target levels for 75% of species monitored in any of the OSPAR regions or theirsub‐divisions.• The aims of the EcoQO should be to ensure the intrinsic health of seabirdcommunities, and to provide triggers for appropriate action.• They proposed a separate EcoQO indicator for each OSPAR region or sub‐region,each consisting of species‐specific trends in abundance of a number of specieswith good quality monitoring data available.