Ainu people who live in Hokkaido for long time call Tufted Puffins “Etuprika”. In the language of Ainu Etu means “beak” and pirka means “beautiful”.

Since the population is so small, it is very hard to observe Blakiston’s Fish Owl in the wild. This fact makes people hardly turn their thought toward this magnificent bird. Why should we protect the animal we cannot see? Ono also think about that question and has not found right answer yet.

On the other hand there was the bird which connects people and conservation efforts in Hokkaido. Tufted Puffin that is.

Ono has been studying and protecting aquatic birds. Since some of the birds make their nest on the edge of cliffs, observing them is sometimes a risky business.

In Japan Tufted Puffins inhabit only two small islands, Yururi and Moyururi about 1.9miles (3km) offshore of Nemuro peninsula northeast Hokkaido. The population size is very low about 40 and regrettably only 10 pairs of them are able to breed. The recovery future seemed to be grim. The causes of decline are by-catch, predation by invasive species and climate change. Not only Tufted Puffins but also all birds which dive into sea to catch fish are casualties of bycatch of gillnetting fishery. Brown rats are also found on both islands and threat to Tufted Puffins because those rats feed on adult puffins. On top of that the change of the ocean temperature affects hunting behaviour of puffins. The prey of puffins such as krill and small fish do not come close to the coast because of the change of the ocean temperature. Puffins have hard time to catch fish because they cannot leave the nest for long time.

Against all odds, people have realized how important Tufted Puffins are and started protecting them. First local fishery has set the zone in which they cannot use gillnetting to avoid bycatch. It has been also successful to get rid of most of brown rats from two islands. In addition that the recovery of breeding place has attempted in Hamanaka, the town nearby Kushiro Shitugen, where puffins had used to breed. The decoys are placed on the ocean and the Kiritappu cape of Hamanaka to attract puffins. Most precious matter is that local people have been working together through all these effort to bring the puffins back.