Foraging zones of the two sibling species of giant petrels in the Indian Ocean throughout the annual cycle: implication for their conservation

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 499:233-248 (2014) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10620 Foraging zones of the two sibling species of giant petrels in the Indian Ocean throughout the annual cycle: implication for their conservation Laurie Thiers1,*, Karine Delord1, Christophe Barbraud1, Richard A. Phillips2, David Pinaud1, Henri Weimerskirch1 1Centre d’Études Biologiques de Chizé, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 79360 Villiers en Bois, France 2British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK *Corresponding author: thiers@cebc.cnrs.fr ABSTRACT: We studied the year-round distribution and at-sea activity patterns of the sibling species, northern giant petrel Macronectes halli and southern giant petrel M. giganteus. Loggers combining light-based geolocators and immersion sensors were used to provide year-long data on large-scale distribution and activity of both species from the Crozet Islands (46°25’S, 51°51’E) and northern giant petrels from the Kerguelen Islands (49°19’S, 69°15’E) in the southern Indian Ocean. Argos platform transmitter terminals (PTTs) were used to track fine-scale movements of breeding adults and juveniles. Overall, adults remained within the Indian Ocean during and outside the breeding season, whereas juveniles dispersed throughout the Southern Ocean. In accordance with previous studies, differences in adult distribution and behaviour were greater between sexes than species: females dispersed more widely than males and also spent more time sitting on the water, particularly during the winter. Observed differences in distribution have important conservation implications: adults, especially males, overlap to a large extent with longline fisheries for Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides in shelf areas within national Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), whereas adult females and juveniles are more likely to encounter high-sea longline fleets targeting tuna in subtropical waters. The circumpolar wide ranging behavior of naïve juvenile birds makes them particularly susceptible to interaction with a wide range of longline fisheries. KEY WORDS: Year-round distribution · Giant petrels · Telemetry · Global location sensing · Longliners Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Thiers L, Delord K, Barbraud C, Phillips RA, Pinaud D, Weimerskirch H (2014) Foraging zones of the two sibling species of giant petrels in the Indian Ocean throughout the annual cycle: implication for their conservation. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 499:233-248. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10620 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 499. Online publication date: March 03, 2014 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2014 Inter-Research.