Though the Bermuda petrel's population has explicitly increased and it is projected that the population will double every 22 years, there are still clearcut inhibitors on its path to recovery. The petrel's vulnerability has drastically increased due to substantial damage to its habitats and nesting sites by tropical storms and climate change. The predicted future increase of category 4 and 5 tropical storms pose an imminent threat to the petrels' long-term survivability. Tropical storms also aid the long-term effect of erosion of their surrounding habitat which hamper conservation efforts. As a solution, there is research going into finding another suitable area to make the artificial nesting places. Its recovery has been hampered by competition from white-tailed tropicbird ("Phaethon lepturus)" for nest-sites and predation of subadults by a single snowy owl (the first ever recorded in Bermuda) on Nonsuch Island, which was eradicated after having eaten 5% of the population. Light pollution from a nearby airport and a NASA tracking station adversely affects nocturnal aerial courtship.