Interannual variations of the occurrence of epipelagic fish in the diets of the seabirds breeding on Teuri Island, northern Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract

The diets of breeding seabirds can be a good monitor of marine environmental changes. From 1984 to 2001 we monitored the diets of black-tailed gulls ( Larus crassirostris) (“surface foragers”), rhinoceros auklets ( Cerorhinca monocerata) (“epipelagic divers”), and Japanese cormorants ( Phalacrocorax filamentotus) (“bottom divers”) that breed on Teuri Island at the northern boundary of the Tsushima Warm current in the Sea of Japan/East Sea. Between 1984 and 1987, both the gulls and the auklets foraged on the sardine ( Sardinops melanostictus), but after 1992, they switched to the anchovy ( Engraulis japonica). This change might reflect the collapse of the sardine stock in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, the year-to-year variations of the percentage of anchovy in the diets of the three seabird species showed similar trends: High in 1994 and 1998–2001; and low in 1992–1993 and 1995–1997. The estimated stock size of the anchovy population in the Tsushima Current area was positively correlated with the percentage of mass of anchovy in the seabirds’ diets. Thus, the short-term annual changes of the total anchovy availability, which might reflect SST or the volume transport of Tsushima Current, possibly affected the seabirds diets on this island.