Seabirds around fishing vessels

Little shearwater

Puffinus assimilis

There are seven subspecies of little shearwater, three of which breed in New Zealand: Kermadec, North Island, and Subantarctic little shearwaters. Respectively, these subspecies breed on Kermadec Islands, the islands off the east coast of North Island, and around Chatham and Antipodes islands. However, the subspecies are indistinguishable at sea. The New Zealand population is estimated to be over 100,000 breeding pairs annually. The little shearwater is fairly distinctive, but it might be misidentified at sea as the fluttering shearwater or the common diving petrel.

Puffinus assimilis
CC-BY, Dragonfly Science

Mean number of little shearwater 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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