OREANDA-NEWS Over the past three months, more than 45,000 dead and in very poor condition live puffin red Book birds have washed up on the Atlantic coast of France. This is reported by the Ici radio station, citing data from the local Bird Protection League (LPO).

Camille Robert, head of the LPO division responsible for birds and marine mammals, noted that it is extremely rare for puffins to be washed ashore in the country, but this has already happened in 2014. Then about 50 thousand dead ends died.

"Storms probably played an important role this winter, bringing a large number of corpses ashore. In normal times, many birds that die at sea are not visible because they are not necessarily carried away by the current to the beaches," Robert explained.

The conservation organization Sea Shepherd added that for every bird found on the shore, there may be up to ten birds that died at sea for various reasons.

In January and February 2026, many storms raged in France: Goretti, Kristin, Ingrid and Nils, which were accompanied by strong winds with speeds of more than 100 kilometers per hour.

Antoine Chabrol, a seabird specialist at the Concarneau Marine Station, explained that these winds caused huge waves at sea and the birds were simply unable to feed themselves.

Earlier, more than 200 birds were found dead and smeared in oil products on the coast of a Russian resort town in two days.