[5] Though similar in appearance to gulls, fulmars are in fact members of the family Procellariidae, which includes petrels and shearwaters.

This can be sprayed out of their mouths as a defense against predators from a very early age, and as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights.

[7] Finally, they also have a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage that helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe.

[8] Linnaeus based his description mainly on the "Mallemucke" that had been described and illustrated in 1675 by the German naturalist Friderich Martens in his account of his voyage to Spitzbergen.

[11][12] The genus name comes from the Old Norse Fúlmár meaning "foul-mew" or "foul-gull" because of the birds' habit of ejecting a foul-smelling oil.

[3][14][17][20][21][22][23] Like other petrels, their walking ability is limited, but they are strong fliers, with a stiff wing action quite unlike the gulls.

[7] The breeding season starts in May;[3] however, the female has glands that store sperm to allow weeks to pass between copulation and the laying of the egg.

[7] The mating ritual of this fulmar consists of the female resting on a ledge and the male landing with his bill open and his head back.

[21][22] The northern fulmar is estimated to have between 15,000,000 and 30,000,000 mature individuals that occupy an occurrence range of 28,400,000 km2 (11,000,000 sq mi) and their North American population is on the rise, hence it is listed with the IUCN as Least Concern.

[1] The range of these species increased greatly last century due to the availability of fish offal from commercial fleets, but may contract because of less food from this source and climatic change.

[31] This is considerably higher than in past studies on northern fulmars, possibly implying increasing plastic debris in marine ecosystems and shorelines.

A popular story among the central Inuit, for instance, is that of their race-mother Sedna, who was the daughter of a chief, and was wooed by a fulmar who promised her, if she would marry him, a delightful life in his distant home.

A year later her father went to pay her a visit; and discovering her misery he killed her husband and took his repentant daughter home.