The importance of Portuguese Continental Shelf Waters to Balearic Shearwaters revealed by aerial census

Hélder Araújo,Jorge Bastos-Santos,Ana Catarina Henriques,Marisa Ferreira,Pedro Correia Rodrigues,José Vingada,Sílvia S Monteiro,Catarina Eira,Andreia Pereira

doi:10.1007/s00227-017-3089-x

Abstract

Portuguese Wildlife Society and projects SafeSea EEA-Grants, FAME (Proj. 2009-1/089) and European Commission’s Life Programme (MarPro NAT/PT/00038). This study was also partly supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) with Grants SFRH/ BD/30240/2006 to M. Ferreira and SFRH/BD/32841/2006 to P. C. Rodrigues. C. Eira is supported by FCT through CESAM UID/AMB/50017/2013 co-funded by FCT/MEC and FEDER, within PT2020 and Compete 2020 and S. Monteiro is financed by a Grant (BPD/0043/AMB/50017) from UID/AMB/50017/2013. This work was also partially supported by the strategic programme UID/BIA/04050/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) funded by FCT and by ERDF (COMPETE2020). The authors thank observers and airplane pilots who contributed to this work

Highlights

The Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus is included in the Critically Endangered IUCN extinction risk category (BirdLife International 2015 )
As for the predictive modeling of Balearic Shearwater distribution, we considered six scenarios: one scenario relative to each annual campaign between 2010 and 2014, and another relative to all years combined
The present study, using aerial census data collected during September/October when migrating birds are at their post-breeding period outside the Mediterranean Sea, reveals an average annual abundance of 10,182 individuals in Portuguese Continental Waters between 2010 and 2014

Summary

Introduction

The Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus is included in the Critically Endangered IUCN extinction risk category (BirdLife International 2015 ). The main threats to the Balearic Shearwater population are lack of breeding habitat, predation when breeding and by-catch (Cooper et al 2003 ; Oro et al 2004 ; Arcos 2011a ; Abelló and Esteban 2012 ). Pollution, including light pollution, and fish stock depletion are among the most recently identified threats to Balearic Shearwaters (Boué et al 2013 ; Rodríguez et al 2015 ; Costa et al 2016 ). Arroyo et al ( 2014 ) presented a conservative range of 24,000– 26,500 Balearic Shearwaters leaving the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion