The puffin population in Iceland’s Westman Islands has fallen so dramatically over recent years that the species will likely be put on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) watch list.

According to Erpur Snaer Hansen of the South Iceland Institute of Natural History, the IUCN decision comes in light of a 20 percent drop in the puffin population over ten years. “But according to our own counts, the population has gone down by 24 percent in only four years,” Hansen told Frettabladid.

The puffin nesting season came very late this year, and a proportion of the birds are likely to give up their nests due to a shortage of sand eels, their primary food source.

The puffin colony in the Westman Islands is the biggest in the world with some 700,000 nesting pairs. Hansen said one clear course of action is to ban puffin hunting for several years; and a ban proposal has already been submitted to the Westman Islands local government.

Traditionally the islanders have had a very close relationship with the numerous puffins; both hunting them and protecting them. Children on the islands still help thousands of lost fledglings take to the skies for the fist time every year.