National Marine Conservation Areas of Canada

Canada’s National Marine Conservation Areas System Plan

Northern gannet (Sula bassanus)

For the first three years of its life, a gannet stays at sea year-round, thereafter returning to land only to breed. They feed by plunge diving from a height of 30 m or more into a school of fish such as herring, mackerel or pollock swimming near the surface. Once a fish is caught, it is brought to the surface before being swallowed, and the gannet then takes to the air, soaring before making another dive. Gannets breed very locally along the North Atlantic coast, mostly in dense colonies.