Foraging white-chinned petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis at risk: from the tropics to Antarctica

In the Southern Ocean white-chinned petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis form the majority of the bird bycatch in longline fisheries. Satellite tracking of breeding birds from the Crozet islands and from South Georgia indicates that during incubation they have the longest mean foraging ranges ever rec orded for a seabird, 2390 and 2190 km. Crozet birds travel to the coast of South Africa at 3495 km, into subtropical waters as well as to Antarctic wa ters. South Georgia birds reach the northern Patagonian shelf. In all these areas birds are potentially in contact with fisheries. These results indic ate that conservation measures limited to Antarctic waters are insufficient to protect seabirds with such extensive foraging ranges. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.