Important areas and conservation sites for a community of globally threatened marine predators of the Southern Indian Ocean

• Published in: Biological Conservation
• Main Authors: Heerah, K., Dias, M.P., Delord, K., Oppel, S., Barbraud, C., Weimerskirch, H., Bost, C.
• Other Authors: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), Université de La Rochelle (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), BirdLife International, Marine and Environmental Sciences Center Portugal, RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, Centre for Conservation Science
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: Bio-logging; Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas; Seabirds; Amsterdam Island; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Indian; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02097720; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.03.037

International audience In the Southern Ocean, the impact of environmental changes and increasing human encroachment is causingdeclines in several populations of seabirds. Amsterdam island (77°33′E; 37°50′S) hosts some emblematic butglobally threatened seabird species with alarming population trends. In 2017, concerns about AmsterdamIsland's marine biodiversity led to the extension of a marine reserve to the boundaries of the exclusive economiczone (EEZ). Nevertheless, it is unknown whether this protected area is sufficiently large to encompass the mostimportant foraging hotspots of the threatened seabirds, particularly during key stages of their life cycle (e.g.breeding period). We analysed movements of four threatened seabird species using a tracking dataset acquiredover several breeding seasons from Amsterdam Island: Amsterdam albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis, sootyalbatross Phoebetria fusca, Indian yellow-nosed albatross Thalassarche carteri and northern rockhopper penguinEudyptes moseleyi. Our objectives were threefold: (1) characterise the at-sea distribution of the above-mentionedpopulations and delineate the marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (mIBAs) triggered by them; (2)assess the potential threat at-sea by quantifying the overlap between seabird distribution and longline fishingefforts; (3) evaluate the coverage of identified mIBAs by marine protected areas and suggest complementaryconservation actions. The identified important areas fell within the boundaries of the EEZ, but vastly exceededthe former reserve. Thus, our results reinforce the justification of the recent expansion of the reserve to theboundaries of the EEZ. However, overall seabird distributions extended beyond the EEZ (5 to 50% of the locations)and we found substantial overlap with longline fishing in the high seas. Our results provide a spatiotemporalenvelope of where and when bycatch mitigation and observer coverage of longline fisheries should bemandated and enforced.