Research conducted in New Zealand by French and New Zealand researchers in 2016 – 2019 deployed GPS and GLS loggers on the Fiordland Penguins from a small island site at Open Bay Island/Taumaka, one of the most northerly breeding sites for this species. The research showed that the Fiordland Penguin was foraging close to its breeding site during the incubation and chick-rearing periods, feeding mainly on squid.
Figure 1. Fiordland penguins nesting in one of the dense pockets of birds found on Open Bay Island/Taumaka in 2018. Image: Susan Waugh.
The penguins were exploiting shelf waters between 200 – 1000 m depth, with relatively short trips during breeding, indicating that their unusual winter-breeding habitat was not hampering foraging efforts (Figure 2). The birds used trips within 90 km from their breeding site and had similar diving behaviour to that of congeners from other Southern Ocean breeding sites, which breed during the summer months.
Figure 2. Fiordland Penguin foraging locations during Incubation, Guard and Creche stage in 2016 – 2017 for 35 individuals tracked using GPS from Open Bay Island/Taumaka in South Western New Zealand. The 200 and 1000 m isobaths are shown, and the grey area indicates the coast of New Zealand’s South Island (top left for full geographic context). After Poupart et al. 2019.
During October 2017 to August 2018, eleven birds were fitted with GLS loggers at Open Bay Island/Taumaka from which 5 loggers were recovered. The birds showed extensive use of the High Seas south of New Zealand and Tasmania during their pre- and post-breeding migrations (Figure 3). Throughout the nearly yearlong study, the birds spent around 50% of their time in New Zealand waters, and 40% in the High Seas, the remaining time was spent in the Australian EEZ near Macquarie Island. During migration periods, the birds were foraging south of the Sub Tropical Front, exploiting waters in the Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic Polar Frontal Zones. The birds frequented similar areas to those of other Fiordland penguins studied during pre-moult migration, in the South Tasman Sea (Mattern et al. 2018).
Figure 3. Kernel density distributions of Fiordland penguins tracked from Open Bay Island/Taumaka with pre-moult (orange) and post-moult (white) migrations in the 2017-2018 year, with 95% and 50% Kernel Utilisation Areas. The white circle shows the study site location. The uppermost dotted lines shows the approximate location of the sub-Tropical Front, the middle line, the sub-Antarctic Front and the bottom line the Antarctic Polar Front. After Thiebot et al. 2020.
The importance of high seas areas, such as those used by Fiordland Penguins and other species of Eudyptes Penguins (Green et al. 2023), in areas where frontal zones provide rich food sources for these penguins during their very constrained lives between breeding and moulting.
The need to better protect high seas areas has been recognised through the agreement signed at the UN for the conservation Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ agreement). This provides the means, at a global scale to protect international waters and manage human activities in them. Several environmental organisations, including BirdLife International and the High Seas Alliance are working to improve biodiversity protection in these areas.
The data from these studies has been loaded onto the Seabird Tracking Database (GPS and GLS), where we hope it will be useful to researchers endeavouring to improve the protection of marine species and the environment.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, CEBC CNRS and Deakin University and Brian Mason Trust who funded these study, and the owners of Taumaka Island, Poutini Ngai Tahu for their practical support and encouragement during the study.
For further information please read the articles by:
- Green et al. 2023: doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16500
- Mattern et al. 2018: doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198688
- Poupart et al. 2019: doi.org/10.3354/meps12910
- Thiebot et al. 2020: doi.org/10.1007/s10336-020-01791-8