A new land reserve is being established in the area of Ragged Beach to protect the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve bird populations from potential impacts of future development.

The coast of Newfoundland is home to 82 per cent of all of North America’s puffins. The Witless Bay Ecological Reserve has the largest colony of Atlantic Puffins in North America with over 600,000 breeding birds, and is located one to two kilometres offshore from the Ragged Beach area.

As a result of the reserve, new development of Crown land in that area will be restricted.