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

54
Tracking ocean wanderers: the global distribution of albatrosses and petrels – Discussion
5.2.2 Relationships between distribution of
albatrosses and petrels and the Statistical
Areas of the Food and Agriculture
Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)
Much fisheries information, including catch and effort data
for many fisheries which have potential for bycatch of
albatrosses and petrels, is still provided only at the scale of
FAO Statistical Areas (Figure 5.4) and subdivisions of
these. While any analysis and comparison with seabird data
at these scales is likely to be too coarse to be of much use in
management contexts, nevertheless it may represent the
lowest common denominator for some data compilations
and comparisons, at least for the time being.
To indicate the scale and nature of potential
comparisons with albatross and petrel range data, we
provide simple depictions, using breeding phase data only
(Figure 5.5), tabulated in Table 5.1 and summarised on a
species-specific basis in Figure 5.6.
The basic comparisons by area (Figure 5.5, Table 5.1)
emphasise the importance of five main regions: (a) north
Pacific (FAO areas 77, 67 and 61 in order of priority); (b)
Figure 5.4. Map of the Food
and Agriculture Organisation
of the United Nation’s (FAO)
Statistical Areas.
Figure 5.5. Global utilisation distributions (UD’s) of breeding albatrosses in relation to the FAO Statistical Areas. A UD provides a probability
contour indicating the relative amount of time birds spend in a particular area i.e. they will spend 50% of their time within the 50% UD. The
dotted line represents the entire range, or 100% UD. This composite was created by calculating the utilisation distributions for each species
and combining them giving each species equal weighting. UD’s for each species were derived from density distribution maps obtained by
satellite tracking of breeding birds of the following 16 species from these locations: Amsterdam Albatross (Amsterdam Island), Antipodean
(Gibson’s) Albatross (Auckland Islands), Black-browed Albatross (Isla Diego de Almagro, Islas Ildefonso, Islas Diego Ramirez, Falkland Islands
(Malvinas), South Georgia and Iles Kerguelen), Black-footed Albatross (Tern Island), Buller’s Albatross (Solander Island and Snares Islands),
Chatham Albatross (Chatham Islands), Grey-headed Albatross (Islas Ildefonso, Islas Diego Ramirez, South Georgia, Marion Island, Campbell
Island and Macquarie Island), Light-mantled Albatross (Macquarie Island), Laysan Albatross (Tern Island and Isla de Guadalupe), Northern Royal
Albatross (Chatham Islands and Taiaroa Head), Southern Royal Albatross (Campbell Island), Shy Albatross (Albatross Island, Mewstone and Pedra
Branca), Sooty Albatross (Iles Crozet), Tristan Albatross (Gough Island), Wandering Albatross (South Georgia, Marion Island, Iles Crozet and Iles
Kerguelen) and Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross (Amsterdam Island).