First census of breeding seabirds between Cap Bienvenue (Terre Adelie) andMoyes Islands (King George V Land), Antarctica: new records for Antarctic seabird populations

Breeding population sizes of penguins, fulmarine etrels and skuas were esti mated for the first time on a major part of the Terre Adelie coast and a se ction of the King George V Land coast during the 1997/1998 austral summer. We counted 106,400 breeding pairs and 12,400 Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis ade liae) chicks by direct counts, and 6960 breeding pairs from aerial photogra phs. Minimum breeding populations for other species are (direct counts): An tarctic fulmar (Fulmarus glacialoides) 6861 pairs, Antarctic petrel (Thalas soica antarctica) 4574 pairs, cape petrel (Daption capense) 194 pairs, snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea) 767 pairs, south polar skua (Catharacta maccormic ki) 129 pairs and subantarctic skua (Catharacta lonnbergi) 1 breeding bird. We discovered 29 new seabird breeding locations in King George V Land, inc luding 6 Antarctic fulmar, 4 Antarctic petrel, 3 cape petrel, 6 snow petrel and 10 south polar skua colonies. The largest colonies found contained up to 4205 breeding pairs of Antarctic fulmars. Population sizes of all specie s obtained in this study are higher than those found during previous partia l surveys. Although these differences are in great part due to differences in survey methods, they also reflect real population changes. Our minimum p opulation sizes obtained for a small portion of the Antarctic coast (< 2%) suggest an underestimation of the estimated world breeding populations for several species of Antarctic seabirds.