PELAGIC SEABIRDS AND THE MARINE-ENVIRONMENT - FORAGING PATTERNS OF WANDERING ALBATROSSES IN RELATION TO PREY AVAILABILITY AND DISTRIBUTION

The foraging success of pelagic seabirds and where and when they catch prey has been largely unknown until now. We use satellite transmitter s in conjunction with recorders measuring feeding times and masses ing ested to show that wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) on foragin g trips from the nest encountered prey on average every 4.4 h and cons umed 2.1 kg of food daily. They travelled up to 3600 km from the nesti ng colony in search of scarce prey, mostly pelagic squid. These were d istributed without relation to underwater topography, and were princip ally caught during daylight hours in discrete patches widely separated along the foraging route. When foraging inshore, the birds fed on mor e localized aggregations of squid and fish on the shelf breaks. These results demonstrate that the foraging patterns of large seabirds such as wandering albatrosses, which rely on scarce prey, can help to incre ase our knowledge of the distribution and availability of poorly known but widespread species of squid.