The Runde Ramsar Site is a

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...

area consisting of five previously approved protected areas in the municipalities of Herøy and

Ulstein Ulstein is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The commercial and administrative centre of Ulstein is the town of Ulsteinvik. The municipality occupies the western half of the island of Hareidla ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The area was established in 2013. The five protected areas consist of four

bird sanctuaries An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and to be protected for the rest of their lives. Pattrice Jones, co-founder of VINE Sanctuary defines an animal sanctuary as "a safe-enough place or relationship within the cont ...

and one

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

, all of which are connected to the

bird cliff Bird cliffs, or nesting cliffs, are steep cliffs with numerous small shelves which serve as nesting locations for bird colonies. Bird cliffs are found on islands in the North Atlantic and Arctic, such as the Faroe Islands, Iceland, the Svalbard a ...

island of

Runde Runde is an island in the municipality of Herøy, Møre og Romsdal, Herøy in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The island has a population of 113 people (as of 2015), and it is connected by the Runde Bridge to the island of Remøya to the south. ...

. Four of the areas lie on the island of Runde in the municipality of Herøy: the Goksøyr Mires Nature Reserve, established in 1996, and the Runde West Side Bird Sanctuary, Runde North Side Bird Sanctuary, and Hellestien-Blåfjellet-Kløfjellet-Geita Bird Sanctuary. The fifth area, the Grasøyane Bird Sanctuary, lies in the municipality of Ulstein and encompasses the Grasøya island group with the islands of Grasøya and Skjærvøya and the surrounding

skerries A skerry is a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation. Skerry, skerries, or The Skerries may also refer to: Geography Northern Ireland * Skerries, County Armagh, a townland in County Armagh * Skerry, County Antrim, a ...

and sea. The four bird sanctuaries were all established in 1981. Runde is the southernmost and third-largest of Norway's bird cliffs, with over 120,000 nesting seabirds. The most important species are the

Atlantic puffin The Atlantic puffin ('), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin is found in the northeastern ...

and

black-legged kittiwake The black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' as ''Larus tridactylus''. The English ...

. There were 40,000 pairs of nesting kittiwakes in 2005 and 17,000 in 2010, and 100,000 pairs of puffins in 2005 and 81,000 in 2010. Species such as the

razorbill The razorbill, razor-billed auk, or lesser auk (''Alca torda'') is a colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus '' Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinis impe ...

common murre The common murre or common guillemot (''Uria aalge'') is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to ...

, and

European shag The European shag or common shag (''Gulosus aristotelis'') is a species of cormorant. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Gulosus''. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mai ...

are in decline, whereas species such as the

northern gannet The northern gannet (''Morus bassanus'') is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family, Sulidae. It is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and Northeastern North America. It is the largest seabird in t ...

and

great skua The great skua (''Stercorarius skua''), sometimes known by the name bonxie in Britain, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is roughly the size of a herring gull. It mainly eats fish caught at the sea surface or taken fr ...

have recently become established. Many species of birds visit the islands while migrating, and a total of 230 species have been recorded here.

References

{{reflist

External links

lovdata.no
Forskrift om vern for 4 fuglefredningsområder og vern av fuglelivet på og omkring Runde i Herøy og Ulstein kommunar, Møre og Romsdal (Regulations for Protection of Four Bird Sanctuaries and Protection of Bird Life on and around Runde in the Municipalities of Herøy and Ulstein, Møre og Romsdal)
Mijlø-direktoratet: Runde

Mijlø-direktoratet: Goksøyrmyrane

''Runde Bird Sanctuary''. 2010. County Governor of Møre and Romsdal.
Ramsar sites in Norway Nature reserves in Norway Protected areas of Møre og Romsdal Protected areas established in 2013 Herøy, Møre og Romsdal Ulstein 2013 establishments in Norway