EFFECTS OF COLONY LOCATION AND NEKTON ABUNDANCE ON THE AT-SEA DISTRIBUTION OF 4 SEABIRD SPECIES

Although seabirds are locally superabundant in the vicinity of breedin g colonies, abundance farther offshore is patchy in both space and tim e. The present study examines the fine-scale (i.e. I km unit) distribu tion and abundance of four seabird species as a function of distance f rom a breeding colony (for three of the four species) and nekton densi ty determined hydroacoustically. We found that density of the breeding species was significantly associated with nekton density, alter contr olling for island effects. In addition, nekton density associated with foraging aggregations of seabirds was significantly higher than that under resting aggregations. These results provide some of the dearest evidence of seabird-nekton association, albeit on an extremely close s patial scale.