Human fisheries provide scavengers with abundant and predictable feeding opportunities that may s... more Human fisheries provide scavengers with abundant and predictable feeding opportunities that may schedule their behavioural patterns. Yet, quantitative assessments on scavengerfisheries interactions are largely oriented towards assessing their spatial overlap. Using GPS tracking technology, we evaluated how the Audouin's gull, a Mediterranean endemic seabird that makes extensive use of feeding opportunities provided by fisheries, co-occurs (i.e. presumably interacts) with the main fishing gear (i.e., diurnal trawlers and nocturnal purse seiners), both in space and time. Results showed that some individuals were able to adapt their distribution and activity patterns to the scheduled routines of human fisheries. Waveform analyses based on co-occurring positions revealed that most interactions with trawlers occurred during the afternoon (around 16:00 h) when discarding occurs as vessels approach the ports. In contrast, gull-purse seiner interactions largely occurred at night (between 2:00 h and 4:00 h) coinciding with the hauling of nets. Moreover, we found an individual component in seabird-fishery interactions, showing that there may be differential use of fisheries by individuals within the population. In addition to implications for our understanding of the behavioural ecology of these species, these results may have important management implications as this food subsidy becomes increasingly restricted (e.g., EU Common Fisheries Policy).
MiCO aims to coalesce existing knowledge on connectivity and migratory corridors of marine migrat... more MiCO aims to coalesce existing knowledge on connectivity and migratory corridors of marine migratory species that utilize areas beyond national jurisdiction. Numerous definitions of "migration" and "migratory species" exist, confusing efforts to develop a specific list of species to include within MiCO. Lascelles et al. (2014) assessed the current status and management needs of over 800 migratory marine species across the same four taxonomic groups as MiCO. They define migratory species as animals that move between "at least two jurisdictions during the course of their annual cycles," with specific species selected by expert groups. The list of species to be evaluated by MiCO was assembled from several sources: including Lascelles et al. (2014) (n = 829), the CMS Migratory Shark Species (n = 94), fish species managed by Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO; n = 40), seabirds of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (n = 171), and BirdLife International (n = 280). The initial 892 species to be evaluated by the MiCO system includes 440 fish, 346 seabird, 99 marine mammal, and 7 sea turtle species. Family Scientific Name Common Name CMS Annex (as of Aug 7 2018) IUCN Red List Status
Este documento constituye la primera monografía del programa Migra de SEO/BirdLife (www.migracion... more Este documento constituye la primera monografía del programa Migra de SEO/BirdLife (www.migraciondeaves.org)
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2019
The distributions of migratory species in the ocean span local, national and international jurisd... more The distributions of migratory species in the ocean span local, national and international jurisdictions. Across these ecologically interconnected regions, migratory marine species interact with anthropogenic stressors throughout their lives. Migratory connectivity, the geographical linking of individuals and populations throughout their migratory cycles, influences how spatial and temporal dynamics of stressors affect migratory animals and scale up to influence population abundance, distribution and species persistence. Population declines of many migratory marine species have led to calls for connectivity knowledge, especially insights from animal tracking studies, to be more systematically and synthetically incorporated into decision-making. Inclusion of migratory connectivity in the design of conservation and management measures is critical to ensure they are appropriate for the level of risk associated with various degrees of connectivity. Three mechanisms exist to incorporate ...
Shearwaters and petrels (hereafter petrels) are highly adapted seabirds that occur across all the... more Shearwaters and petrels (hereafter petrels) are highly adapted seabirds that occur across all the world's oceans. Petrels are a threatened seabird group comprising 124 species. They have bet-hedging life histories typified by extended chick rearing periods, low fecundity, high adult survival, strong philopatry, monogamy and long-term mate fidelity and are thus vulnerable to change. Anthropogenic alterations on land and at sea have led to a poor conservation status of many petrels with 52 (42%) threatened
Monografía INDEMARES "Espacio Marino del Oriente y Sur de Lanzarote-Fuerteventura
Esta monografía ha sido resultado de los estudios científicos del proyecto LIFE+ INDEMARES, cofin... more Esta monografía ha sido resultado de los estudios científicos del proyecto LIFE+ INDEMARES, cofinanciado por la Comisión Europea, y se ha basado en los informes realizados por el Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO), SECAC y SEO BirdLife.
Canal de Menorca. Proyecto LIFE + INDEMARES
El área del “Canal de Menorca” es un corredor marino situado entre las islas de Mallorca y Menorc... more El área del “Canal de Menorca” es un corredor marino situado entre las islas de Mallorca y Menorca, del archipiélago de las islas Baleares, que presenta una amplitud mínima entre islas de 36 kilómetros. En sus fondos se desarrollan hábitats representativos de los fondos mediterráneos en un perfecto estado de conservación, pero además es una zona importante de alimentación de aves y cetáceos, por lo que se ha propuesto para su protección. El área propuesta incluye tanto hábitats litorales como profundos, con una superficie total de 335.353,6 hectáreas totalmente marinas pertenecientes a la delimitación de aguas exteriores. Lo más característico en esta zona es la morfología del terreno submarino. La plataforma continental se extiende a lo largo de una planicie de pendiente suave, de naturaleza sedimentaria, muy influenciada por la corriente, formando ripples y dunas de gran tamaño. La ruptura de la pendiente de la plataforma con el talud se encuentra a aproximadamente 120 metros de p...
Spatio-temporal variability of surface geostrophic mesoscale currents in the Balearic Sea (wester... more Spatio-temporal variability of surface geostrophic mesoscale currents in the Balearic Sea (western Mediterranean) is characterized from satellite altimetry in combination with in-situ velocity measurements collected, among others, by drifting buoys, gliders and high-frequency radar. Here, we explore the use of tracking data from living organisms in the Balearic Sea as an alternative way to acquire in-situ velocity measurements. Specifically, we use GPS-tracks of resting Scopoli’s shearwaters Calonectris diomedea, that act as passive drifters, and compare them with satellite-derived velocity patterns. Results suggest that animal-borne GPS data can be used to identify rafting behaviour outside of the breeding colonies and, furthermore, as a proxy to describe local sea surface currents. Four rafting patterns were identified according to the prevailing driving forces responsible for the observed trajectories. We find that 76% of the bird trajectories are associated with the combined eff...
SHORT REPORT Satellite tracking of Bulwer’s Petrels Bulweria bulwerii in the Canary Islands
Capsule The breeding foraging and post-breeding dispersal movements of five satellite-tagged Bulw... more Capsule The breeding foraging and post-breeding dispersal movements of five satellite-tagged Bulwer’s Petrels from the Canary Islands were recorded. Foraging trips lasted 5.6 days in average (n=3), while the mean distance covered was 1261 km, and foraging areas were located over the continental slope and the adjacent pelagic waters, around 1200–2000 m depth and up to 350 km from the colony. After the chick-rearing period, birds dispersed southwestwards to the tropical waters of the central Atlantic. The continued improvement and deployment of remote tracking systems has revolutionized the understanding of the distribution patterns and at sea behaviour of several pelagic seabird species over the last two decades (Burger & Shaffer 2008). These improvements have been key for the conservation of Procellariiforms at sea, e.g. by contributing to the identification of hotspots that could be designated as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) (BirdLife International 2004, Ropert-Coudert & Wilson 20...
Cama, A. 2010. Patrons de distribució de les aus marines i factors ecològics implicats en la presencia de làrids a la plataforma marina del delta de l’Ebre (NW del Mediterrani). Tesi doctoral. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona
Increasing human activities have detrimental consequences on marine ecosystems and their impact c... more Increasing human activities have detrimental consequences on marine ecosystems and their impact can have cumulative effects. Within marine ecosystems, seabirds respond to ecosystem variability and face multiple human pressures, especially threatened species. In long-lived species, juveniles and immatures could represent up to 50% of the total population, but their migratory movements remain largely unknown. Here, we depict the migratory patterns of juvenile Balearic shearwaters Puffinus mauretanicus, the most threatened European seabird, using miniaturised satellite transmitters. At the end of the 2012 breeding season, five tagged juveniles left the breeding colonies of Eivissa Island (western Mediterranean) the first week of July. They moved westwards to reach the Atlantic Ocean between 3 and 13 days afterwards. Juveniles showed a two-phase migratory pattern: they first travelled slower close to the breeding colonies, and then moved towards their wintering areas in the Atlantic Oce...
Marine megafauna, including seabirds, are critically affected by fisheries bycatch. However, byca... more Marine megafauna, including seabirds, are critically affected by fisheries bycatch. However, bycatch risk may differ on temporal and spatial scales due to the uneven distribution and effort of fleets operating different fishing gear, and to focal species distribution and foraging behavior. Scopoli's shearwater Calonectris diomedea is a long-lived seabird that experiences high bycatch rates in longline fisheries and strong population-level impacts due to this type of anthropogenic mortality. Analyzing a long-term dataset on individual monitoring, we compared adult survival (by means of multi-event capture-recapture models) among three close predator-free Mediterranean colonies of the species. Unexpectedly for a long-lived organism, adult survival varied among colonies. We explored potential causes of this differential survival by (1) measuring egg volume as a proxy of food availability and parental condition; (2) building a specific longline bycatch risk map for the species; and ...
Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 2017
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are considered one of the main tools in both fisheries and conserva... more Marine protected areas (MPAs) are considered one of the main tools in both fisheries and conservation management to protect threatened species and their habitats around the globe. However, MPAs are underrepresented in marine environments compared to terrestrial environments. Within this context, we studied the Atlantic non-breeding distribution of the southern population of Balearic shearwaters (Puffinus mauretanicus) breeding in Ibiza during the 2011-2012 period based on global location sensing (GLS) devices. Our objectives were (1) to identify overall Important Atlantic Areas (IAAs) from a southern population, (2) to describe spatio-temporal patterns of oceanographic habitat use, and (3) to assess whether existing conservation areas (Natura 2000 sites and marine Important Bird Areas (IBAs)) cover the main IAAs of Balearic shearwaters. Our results highlighted that the Atlantic staging (from June to October in 2011) dynamic of the southern population was driven by individual segregation at both spatial and temporal scales. Individuals ranged in the NorthEast Atlantic over four main IAAs (Bay of Biscay: BoB, Western Iberian shelf: WIS, Gulf of Cadiz: GoC, West of Morocco: WoM). While most individuals spent more time on the WIS or in the GoC, a small number of birds visited IAAs at the extremes of their Atlantic distribution range (i.e., BoB and WoM). The chronology of the arrivals to the IAAs showed a latitudinal gradient with northern areas reached earlier during the Atlantic staging. The IAAs coincided with the most productive areas (higher chlorophyll a values) in the NE Atlantic between July and October. The spatial overlap between IAAs and conservation areas was higher for Natura 2000 sites than marine IBAs (areas with and without legal protection, respectively). Concerning the use of these areas, a slightly higher proportion of estimated positions fell within marine IBAs compared to designated Natura 2000 sites, with Spanish and Portuguese conservation areas being the most visited. Our results support the current design of conservation areas in Spain and Portugal regarding the protection of adult breeders of this highly mobile species.
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