Winter Hen Census Counts inside 13km of Muan Worldwide Airport

Dr Nial Moores, Nationwide Director, Birds Korea, December 30^th 2024

Muan Worldwide Airport, centred at 34.991°, 126.383, is positioned subsequent to the coast in southwestern Republic of Korea.

Following the tragic air crash on December 29^th, and a few suggestion {that a} contributing trigger might need been hen strike, we’ve got obtained some inquiries about whether or not the hen strike danger at Muan Worldwide Airport may usually be excessive or not; and in addition what species of hen might need triggered harm to this plane.

No-one in Birds Korea has performed sturdy surveys near this airport within the final decade or so; and we shouldn’t have entry to any details about this crash that’s not already within the public area.

As a substitute, to attempt to assist scale back hypothesis, presently we might merely prefer to share a number of the information gathered throughout the Nationwide Winter Hen Census, performed underneath the auspices of the Nationwide Institute of Organic Analysis throughout the nationwide Ministry of Setting (NIBR 1999-2023). These identical information will be independently accessed on-line within the database constructed by Andreas Kim.

The Winter Hen Census was initiated in 1999, and has grown to cowl 200 or extra websites nationwide, with many of the deal with wetlands and waterbirds.  Initially counts had been as soon as a winter; in recent times, the quantity has elevated to 2-4 counts annually.

ICAO (2020) state that 95% of hen strikes happen under 2,000 ft (=610m) and name for Wildlife Hazard Administration Plans out to 13km from the airport, as a result of on a standard method plane descend under 610m roughly 13 km from the runway.  

There are 4 Winter Hen Census depend areas which can be both fully (Muan Reservoir), largely (Muan-Mokpo Coast, Muan Gun-Hyeonggyeong Myeon and Unnam Myeon) or are partially (Aphae Island) inside 13km of airport operations of the Muan Worldwide Airport (Determine 1). The 2 latter depend websites embrace tidal flat which has been designated as a Pure World Heritage Property.

Most likely due to modifications in land-use, following reclamation and airport development, two of those depend websites (Muan Reservoir and Muan-Mokpo Coast) seem to overlap in space. Though we shouldn’t have entry to the unique studies, we assume – primarily based on all Census studies that we’ve got seen – that the depend information don’t overlap in any method.

As there are few Census counts obtainable for these websites for December, we’ve got used January counts for 5 winters between 2019 and 2023 to point whether or not or not Muan Worldwide Airport is positioned in an space which is necessary for waterbirds.

Though not all of those waterbirds would have been counted inside 13km of airport operations, the 4 Census websites mixed supported a 5-year geometric imply in January 2019-2023 of greater than 30,000 waterbirds (Desk 1).  For context, one of many standards that the Ramsar Conference  makes use of to establish internationally necessary wetlands is the presence of 20,000 or extra waterbirds.

Desk 1. January Counts of all birds recorded throughout the Winter Hen Census on the 4 Depend Areas which lie fully or partly inside 13km of the Muan Worldwide Airport.

ICAO (2020) additionally gives steering on how you can develop a hen strike danger matrix. Merely put, together the larger the mass of the hen, the bigger the flocks that the species types, and the extra continuously that species happens near airport operations, the upper the danger of harm to plane by hen strike.

There are lots of waterbird species within the Republic of Korea that kind massive flocks throughout migration or in winter. At the very least 4 such species have been recorded in substantial concentrations at a number of of those 4 Winter Hen Census websites in January (Desk 2). These are Tundra Bean Goose Anser serrirostris 큰기러기 (with a mass of roughly 1,970–3,390 g: Kirwan et al. 2024); Larger White-fronted Goose Anser albifrons 쇠기러기 (with a mass of roughly 1,809-2,221 g: Ely et al. 2024); Baikal Teal Sibirionetta formosa 가창오리 (with a mass of 360-505 g: Moores in Kear 2005) and Nice Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo 민물가마우지 (with a mass of very roughly 2.3 kg: Hatch et al. 2020).
 

Desk 2. Peak January Counts between 2019 and 2023 of 4 chosen waterbird species on the 4 Winter Hen Census Websites inside 13km of the Muan Worldwide Airport.

As all the time we welcome corrections if any factual errors are detected on this publish. Thanks upfront.

And at last, together with tens of millions of individuals world wide, we wish to ship our deepest condolences to all these affected by this horrible accident.

References

Ely, C. R., A. X. Dzubin, S. G. Mlodinow, G. M. Kirwan, C. Carboneras, and E. Garcia (2024). Larger White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons), model 1.1. In Birds of the World (N. D. Sly and B. Okay. Keeney, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gwfgoo.01.1

Hatch, J. J., Okay. M. Brown, G. G. Hogan, R. D. Morris, J. Orta, E. Garcia, F. Jutglar, G. M. Kirwan, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Nice Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), model 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.grecor.01

ICAO. 2020. Doc 9137—Airport Providers Handbook—Half 3—Wildlife Management and Discount, fifth ed.; ICAO: Montreal, QC, Canada.

Kirwan, G. M., C. Carboneras, and P. Pyle (2024). Tundra Bean-Goose (Anser serrirostris), model 1.1. In Birds of the World (B. Okay. Keeney, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.tunbeg1.01.1

Moores, N. 2005. Baikal Teal. (pp. 605-608 in Keir [ed.] Geese, Geese and Swans. Quantity 2, revealed by Oxford College Press.

NIBR. 2019-2023. Nationwide Institute of Organic Sources (NIBR). 2019-2023 Nationwide Winter Census, performed underneath the auspices of the Ministry of Setting. NIBR, Incheon, Republic of Korea.  (in Korean: 겨울철 조류 동시 센서스 2008-2023. 국립생물자원관: 대한민국 인천.)