Seabirds around fishing vessels

Black petrel

Procellaria parkinsoni

The black petrel predominantly breeds on Great Barrier Island, with a minimum estimated 1,350 pairs breeding annually. A small number of pairs also breeds on Little Barrier Island. This species is difficult to distinguish at sea from the white-chinned petrel and the Westland petrel, and observers may identify them incorrectly. For instance, records around the Stewart-Snares shelf are likely to be of white-chinned petrel.

Procellaria parkinsoni
CC-BY, Dragonfly Science

Mean number of black petrel recorded around fishing vessels during counts carried out by government observers, binned to 0.4 degree of longitude and latitude. The size of the circle indicates the number of observations, whereas the colour indicates the mean number of birds recorded during counts. Empty circles indicate that no birds were observed. The grey areas indicate water depths of less than 1000 m.

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