FRESHWATER FISHING IN SEABIRDS FROM THE SUB-ANTARCTIC KERGUELEN ISLANDS

Kerguelen Islands between 1955 and 1992. Before that period, those ecosystems were free of freshwater fish. Because of the absence of competition and other factors, the various populations of salmonid fish increased exponentially soon after their first successful introductions. Field workers have be...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Timothée R. Cook, Patrick Davaine
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2009
Subjects:
Key words
Kerguelen Shag
Phalacrocorax verrucosus
Salmonidae
Gentoo Penguin
Pygoscelis papua
Kerguelen Islands
Antarctic
Kerguelen
Antarc*
Gentoo penguin
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.690.5990
http://marineornithology.org/PDF/37_3/37_3_245-247.pdf
Description
Summary:Kerguelen Islands between 1955 and 1992. Before that period, those ecosystems were free of freshwater fish. Because of the absence of competition and other factors, the various populations of salmonid fish increased exponentially soon after their first successful introductions. Field workers have been monitoring the populations of salmonids over a period of 40 years. Here, we present a summary of observations by those field workers of seabirds foraging on freshwater fish. Observations show that several seabird species benefit from the fish. However, although the density of fish is extremely high, the numbers of seabirds actually exploiting them remains low. Simple calculations show that seabirds probably do not affect freshwater fish demography significantly. The discrepancy between the numbers of seabirds freshwater fishing and the numbers of fish present could result from difficulty of access for seabirds to this potential resource.

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