Tern Island Albatrosses - 1998

David Anderson; David Hyrenbach

doi:10.15468/kpvpvr

Tern Island Albatrosses - 1998

Citation

Hyrenbach, D. and D. Anderson. 2013. Tern Island Albatrosses - 1998. Data downloaded from OBIS-SEAMAP (http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/313) on yyyy-mm-dd. https://doi.org/10.15468/kpvpvr accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-07-09.

Description

Original provider: Wake Forest University Dataset credits: National Science Foundation Abstract: Satellite telemetry was used to identify the foraging distributions of two congeneric species of albatrosses that nest in the tropics/subtropics. Breeding Black-footed albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) and Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) nesting in Tern Island (Northwest Hawaiian Islands) and tracked during the 1998 breeding season (January - June) performed foraging trips to continental shelves off North America. Black-footed albatross made long trips to the west coast of North America (British Columbia to California). Laysan albatross traveled primarily to the north of the Hawaiian Islands, and reached the waters of the Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska. These albatross species mixed short and long trips during the chick-rearing period (February - June), but engaged in short foraging trips during the brooding period (within 18 days after chick hatched, January - February). Purpose: The analysis of albatross movement patterns showed that the core feeding areas during long trips were located over the continental shelves of North America, from California to the Aleutians. An understanding on the foraging biology of North Pacific albatrosses has important implications for assessing their bycatch risk in commercial fisheries.

We thank C. Alexander, L. Carsten, P. Fernández, F. Juola, P. Sievert, A. Viggiano and S. Wang for assistance in the field, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for logistical support. This research was funded by National Science Foundation grant DEB 9629539 to D. Anderson. Supplemental information: These albatross were tracked using PTT-100 Argos transmitters (Microwave Telemetry, Columbia, MD) operating at a 90-second repetition rate and programmed to operate on a 8:24 h ON:OFF duty cycle. Transmitter bench-tests before deployment revealed that the Argos location quality classes (lcs) had the following median position errors, expressed in kilometers: lc B (24.23), lc A (2.95), lc 0 (5.65), lc 1 (1.53), lc 2 (0.73), and lc 3 (0.44).

The low-quality class B locations were discarded because they misrepresented the telemetry tracks. Thus, this dataset includes 3505 high-quality locations (lc classes A or better) with median positional errors <6 km.

Purpose

The analysis of albatross movement patterns showed that the core feeding areas during long trips were located over the continental shelves of North America, from California to the Aleutians. An understanding on the foraging biology of North Pacific albatrosses has important implications for assessing their bycatch risk in commercial fisheries.

We thank C. Alexander, L. Carsten, P. Fernández, F. Juola, P. Sievert, A. Viggiano and S. Wang for assistance in the field, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for logistical support. This research was funded by National Science Foundation grant DEB 9629539 to D. Anderson.

Sampling Description

Study Extent

NA

Sampling

NA

Method steps

NA

Additional info

marine, harvested by iOBIS

Taxonomic Coverages

Scientific names are based on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).

Phoebastria immutabilis
common name: Laysan Albatross rank: species
Phoebastria nigripes
common name: Black-footed Albatross rank: species

Geographic Coverages

Tern Island,NW Hawaiian Islands,North Pacific Ocean,California Current System,Aleutians,Gulf of Alaska

Bibliographic Citations

Contacts

David Anderson
originator
position: Primary contact
Wake Forest University
email: da@wfu.edu
homepage: http://www.wfu.edu/~djanders/anderson.htm

David Hyrenbach
originator
position: Primary contact
Duke University Marine Laboratory
email: khyrenba@u.washington.edu
homepage: http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/hyrenbach.html

OBIS-SEAMAP
metadata author
Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke University
A328 LSRC building
Durham
27708
NC
US
email: seamap-contact@duke.edu
homepage: http://seamap.env.duke.edu

OBIS-SEAMAP
distributor
Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Duke University
A328 LSRC building
Durham
27708
NC
US
email: seamap-contact@duke.edu
homepage: http://seamap.env.duke.edu

David Anderson
owner
position: Primary contact
Wake Forest University
email: da@wfu.edu
homepage: http://www.wfu.edu/~djanders/anderson.htm

David Hyrenbach
owner
position: Primary contact
Duke University Marine Laboratory
email: khyrenba@u.washington.edu
homepage: http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/hyrenbach.html

David Anderson
administrative point of contact
position: Primary contact
Wake Forest University
email: da@wfu.edu
homepage: http://www.wfu.edu/~djanders/anderson.htm

David Hyrenbach
administrative point of contact
position: Primary contact
Duke University Marine Laboratory
email: khyrenba@u.washington.edu
homepage: http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/hyrenbach.html