Tracking Ocean Wanders (PDF, 5 MB) - BirdLife International

Tracking ocean wanderers: the global distribution of albatrosses and petrels – Results
Grey-headed Albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma
– South Georgia
During the 18-month non-breeding period, Grey-headed
Albatrosses have a circumpolar distribution mainly between
30°S and 60°S (Figure 3.30). Outside their foraging range in
the south-west Atlantic while breeding (see Figure 3.12),
they spent most time in core areas on the Patagonian Shelf
and southern Indian Ocean (two areas in the west and one
in the east), and tended to be more widely dispersed whilst
in the Pacific Ocean. Although only the staging area in the
south-west Indian Ocean (Figure 3.30) coincides with one
of the primary tuna longline fishing grounds (Tuck et al.
2003), their migration routes traverse most of the key tuna
fishing areas south of 30°S as well as others exploited for
Patagonian Toothfish. Adequate protection of nonbreeding
Grey-headed Albatrosses would therefore require
mitigation measures to be adopted in virtually all longline
fisheries south of 30°S.
Richard Phillips, Janet Silk and John Croxall
Figure 3.30. Utilisation
distribution maps for Greyheaded
Albatrosses (a
biennial breeder) tracked
from Bird Island, South
Georgia in the 18 months
between breeding attempts
(n=6 indivs). A. Overall
distribution; B. South
Atlantic; C. Southern Indian
Ocean.
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