Seabirds – Flesh-footed shearwater

Graceful ocean travellers

While humans increasingly turn to technology to get a catch at sea, seabirds have evolved their own rather special techniques. For example, the flesh-footed shearwaters and petrels have a highly-developed sense of smell allowing them to detect and follow scent trails, including fishing activity, across the open ocean.

The flesh-footed shearwater breeds from October to May on islands in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. Each breeding pair will raise a single chick in a burrow in the ground under forest. The parents feed at sea during the day, coming ashore only at night. From May to September they are absent from our waters, migrating great distances to the seas off Japan and North America. It is there that they moult, gradually replacing their old feathers, chase prey during the northern summer, then return ‘home’ for our summer and a new breeding season.

Flesh-footed shearwaters are a common sight in northern New Zealand waters and are a bird a lot of fishers are familiar with. Their keen eyesight enables them to see both above and below the surface, and they are also able to dive and ‘fly’ underwater, and have been recorded diving up to 60 metres. Unfortunately, these attributes can get them into trouble around fishing boats chasing baits and many flesh-footed shearwaters get hooked. The high numbers killed in New Zealand waters has recently led to the raising of their international threat ranking. Various groups such as Forest & Bird and Southern Seabird Solutions are working together with DOC and fishing groups such as LegaSea to raise awareness of how to avoid catching these beautiful wild creatures.

Check out the Big Angry Fish team’s tips on how to avoid catching seabirds at youtube.com/watch?v=iBdIonDLuDk