Seabirds around fishing vessels

Westland petrel

Procellaria westlandica

The Westland petrel only breeds along an eight-kilometre stretch of forested foothills near Punakaiki, on the west coast of South Island. The breeding population is estimated to be around 4,000 pairs annually. This species can be difficult to distinguish at sea from the black petrel and the white-chinned petrel, and some misidentifications may be expected.

Procellaria westlandica
CC-BY, Dragonfly Science

Mean number of Westland petrel 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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