Seabirds around fishing vessels

Australasian gannet

Morus serrator

The Australasian gannet breeds in many locations around New Zealand. It is predominantly a coastal species and is frequently seen in harbours and estuaries. Juveniles disperse to Australian waters, and return to New Zealand as adults. There is no reliable recent estimate of the New Zealand population available. However, at some monitored breeding sites (e.g., Muriwai, near Auckland), increases in the numbers of nesting birds have been recorded. This species is very distinctive, and misidentifications are expected to be uncommon.

Morus serrator
CC-BY, Dragonfly Science

Mean number of Australasian gannet 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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