Preferred foraging areas of Heard Island albatrosses during chick raising and implications for the management of incidental mortality in fisheries

• Published in: Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems
• Main Authors: Lawton, Kieran, Kirkwood, Roger, Robertson, Graham, Raymond, Ben
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2007
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Kerguelen; Heard Island; Indian; Heard; McDonald Islands; Îles Kerguelen; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aqc.857; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Faqc.857; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/aqc.857

Abstract Incidental mortality in fisheries is causing declines in many albatross populations around the world. To assess potential interactions with regional fisheries satellite tags were used to track black‐browed albatrosses ( Thalassarche melanophrys ) and light‐mantled sooty albatrosses ( Phoebetria palpebrata ) breeding on Heard Island during the chick‐rearing periods of 2003/04. This was the first time individuals from either population had been tracked. Black‐browed albatrosses foraged largely within the Heard and McDonald Islands Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ) north‐east of the island, although 20% of foraging trips were to areas north of the EEZ into Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) areas 58.5.1 and 58.5.2 and into the Îles Kerguelen EEZ. In contrast, the light‐mantled sooty albatrosses foraged well south of Heard Island along the southern boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Both species appear to face minimal risk of incidental mortality during the chick‐rearing period in the regulated, legal fisheries, but are threatened by illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels operating in the southern Indian Ocean. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.