Shearwaters
Around ten species of shearwaters can be seen in New Zealand waters, all from the Puffinus genus. Three of them are endemic to New Zealand: the Buller's, fluttering, and Hutton's shearwaters. Shearwaters vary in size and plumage, but they can be difficult to accurately identify at sea. Some misidentifications are to be expected.
Mean number of shearwaters (unidentified) 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.
| Data | Mean count |
|---|---|
| All data | 5.9 |
| Spring | 6.2 |
| Summer | 7.1 |
| Autumn | 5.5 |
| Winter | 0.9 |
| 2009 | 3.4 |
| 2010 | 17 |
| 2011 | 19 |
| 2012 | 3.5 |
| 2013 | 7.2 |
| 2014 | 6.0 |
| 2015 | 4.6 |
| 2016 | 3.1 |
| 2017 | 3.9 |
| 2018 | 6.4 |
| 2019 | 5.1 |
| 2020 | 2.9 |
| 2021 | 1.8 |
| 2022 | 4.1 |
