Atlantic puffins have shown local recovery in some colonies through restoration work, but face increasing pressure from climate change altering prey fish distribution and availability for breeding success.
Puffin chick welfare during poor prey years is particularly distressing: parents bring prey the wrong size for chicks to swallow and chicks starve despite apparently adequate provisioning effort. The parents cannot identify that butterfish are too large - they evolved to deliver whatever prey is available. Climate-driven shifts that reduce sand lance and herring near colonies create this welfare mismatch. Protection of cold-water fish populations through fisheries management and climate action addresses puffin chick welfare at its root cause. Colony restoration demonstrates that human action can restore welfare conditions that had been eliminated by historical exploitation.