The summer seabird community of the Flemish Cap in 2002

Abstract

We describe the seabird community and the distribution of seabirds in the Flemish Cap in the summer of 2002. Data were collected by means of sixty-six 300 m wide boat transects of varied length in the first half of July. A total of 802 seabirds and 8 species were counted within census transects. Over 70% of seabirds were Great Shearwaters (Puffinus gravis), followed by Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) with 17.1% of the seabirds recorded. The number of seabirds recorded per census transect was, on average, very low (mean = 10.68, SD = 19.54) and no seabirds were observed in 20 transects. Overall seabird abundance was 8.78 birds km-1 (n = 66, SD = 16.98). Seabird abundance and seabird species richness were not evenly distributed across the Flemish Cap but seemed to concentrate at the edges of the southern half of the study area. This pattern suggests that seabirds were mostly distributed in the area of confluence of the North Atlantic Current with the Labrador Current. We also call attention on the possibility that the Flemish Cap may be an important area for wintering Great Shearwaters.