New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Albatross predation of juvenile southern blue whiting (Micromesistius
australis) on the Campbell Plateau
YVES CHEREL
SUE WAUGH
Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé
UPR 1934 du Centre National
de la Recherche Scientifique
F-79360 Villiers-en-Bois
France
email: cherel@cebc.cnrs.fr
STUART HANCHET
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
Research Ltd
P. O. Box 893, Nelson
New Zealand
Abstract Dietary samples collected at Campbell Island in
summer 1997 indicate that southern blue whiting (
Micromesistius
australis)
formed the bulk of the food of black-browed albatrosses
(
Diomedea melanophrys impavida)
during the chick-rearing period.
Birds preyed upon a single size class of fish with a mode at 80-90 mm
standard length; fish were 4-5 months old and belonged to the 0+ age group.
Satellite tracking showed that, when performing trips of short duration, adult
albatrosses foraged within the 1000 m depth contour in the subantarctic
zone north of Campbell Island. The feeding ecology of albatrosses thus suggests
that juvenile (0+) southern blue whiting are pelagic and occur in dense schools
in the top 5 m of the water column over the Campbell Plateau during the summer
months. The high reliance of birds on juvenile southern blue whiting during the
chick-rearing period has implications for the management of the southern blue
whiting fishery and the conservation of black-browed albatrosses and other
marine predators occurring in the New Zealand subantarctic area.
Keywords black-browed albatross; conservation; feeding
ecology; fishery; marine predators; rockhopper penguins; satellite tracking
M98078
Received 9 November 1998; accepted 26 March 1999
Short communication
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (742K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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