Seabirds around fishing vessels

New Zealand white-capped albatross

Thalassarche cauta steadi

The white-capped albatross, previously considered as a subspecies of the shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta), is endemic to New Zealand. Almost 100,000 pairs breed here annually, mainly on Auckland Islands. This species is easily distinguished from other albatrosses and misidentifications are unlikely.

Thalassarche cauta steadi
CC-BY, Dragonfly Science

Mean number of New Zealand white-capped albatross 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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