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

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Tracking ocean wanderers: the global distribution of albatrosses and petrels – Discussion
Figure 5.12. Global utilisation distributions (UD’s) of breeding albatrosses from New Zealand and Australia in relation to the areas of competence of
selected RFMOs. For explanation of RFMO acronyms see Fig. 5.7. 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.
Important breeding sites for albatrosses in the region are shown. The composite in A. was created by calculating the utilisation distributions for each
species and combining them with equal weighting of each species. The composite in B. was created by calculating the utilisation distributions for
each species and combining them by weighting according to IUCN threat status. The weights used were: NT (Neat Threatened) = 1; V (Vulnerable) =
2; E (Endangered) = 3; CE (Critically Endangered) = 4. The threat status of each species is given after the species name below.
UD’s for each species were derived
from density distribution maps
obtained by satellite tracking breeding
birds of the following 9 species from
the locations given: Antipodean
(Gibson’s) Albatross: V (Auckland
Islands), Black-browed Albatross: E
(Macquarie Island), Buller’s Albatross:
V (Solander Island and the Snares
Islands), Chatham Albatross: CE
(Chatham Islands), Grey-headed
Albatross: V (Macquarie and
Campbell Islands), Light-mantled
Albatross: NT (Macquarie Island),
Northern Royal Albatross: E (Chatham
Islands and Taiaroa Head), Southern
Royal Albatross: V (Campbell Island)
and Shy Albatross: NT (Albatross
Island, Mewstone and Pedra Branca).
Table 5.5. Comparison of the importance of selected RFMOs to the New Zealand and Australian albatrosses (breeding and non-breeding) for which
satellite tracking data was submitted to the workshop. For explanation of RFMO acronyms see Table. 5.3.
IATTC
CCAMLR CCSBT CPPS IATTC new ICCAT IOTC IPHC WCPFC CEPTFA NPAFC PSC SEAFO SWIOFC
RFMO Area (millions of km2 )
No. of albatross species tracked within RFMO:
83 73 37 62 75 137 69 14 129 18 20 1.6 23 27
– breeding (out of 9 total) 2 5 1 1 1 0 3 0 5 0 0 0 0 0
– non-breeding (out of 6)
% time spent in RFMO by tracked birds:
– breeding
2 4 3 2 3 1 3 0 4 2 0 0 1 1
– species given equal weight 7 70 0 0 0 0 10 0 79 0 0 0 0 0
– species weighted by threat status
– non-breeding
4 74 0 0 0 0 5 0 87 0 0 0 0 0
– species given equal weight 0 70 18 7 20 5 24 0 44 6 0 0 0 2
– species weighted by threat status
Rank of importance of RFMO to satellite
tracked albatrosses, taking the number of species
and time spent in the RFMO into account:
0 63 25 12 27 7 15 0 46 9 0 0 0 2
– breeding 4 2 6 7 5 8 3 8 1 8 8 8 8 8
– non-breeding 10 1 5 6 4 8 3 12 2 7 12 12 11 9