Seabirds around fishing vessels

Giant petrels

Two species of giant petrels are found in New Zealand, the southern (Macronectes giganteus) and northern (M. halli) giant petrels. Only the latter species breeds in New Zealand, with around 2,600 pairs breeding annually in the south of Stewart Island and on New Zealand’s subantarctic islands. The southern giant petrel breeds on circumpolar subantarctic islands and commonly visits New Zealand waters. These species are difficult to distinguish at sea and their distributions are presented together here.

Macronectes spp.
CC-BY, Dragonfly Science

Mean number of giant petrels 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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