Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review 2012

AEBAR 2012: Protected species: Seabirds
catch and population characteristics of different seabird taxa, and that this made quantifying the
overall impact of fishing difficult. A key objective of New Zealand’s NPOA-seabirds was to improve
this information and gain a better understanding of the impact of incidental catch on seabird taxa.
Seabird taxa caught in New Zealand fisheries range in IUCN threat ranking from critically
endangered (e.g. Chatham Island shag), to least concern (e.g. flesh-footed shearwater) (e.g., Vie et al.
2009).
Table 5.2 (after Taylor 2000): Number of species (spp.) and taxa of seabirds of different families in New
Zealand and worldwide in 2000. Additional taxa may have been recorded since.
NZ visitors,
World breeding NZ breeding vagrants
Family Common name N spp. N taxa N spp. N taxa N spp. N taxa
Spheniscidae Penguins 17 26 6 10 8 10
Gaviidae Divers, loons 4 6 – – – –
Podicipedidae Grebes 10 20 2 2 – –
Diomedeidae Albatrosses 24 24 13 13 7 7
Procellariidae Petrels, shearwaters 70 109 28 31 20 23
Hydrobatidae Storm-petrels 20 36 4 5 2 3
Pelecanoididae Diving petrels 4 9 2 4 – –
Phaethontidae Tropicbirds 3 12 1 1 1 1
Pelecanidae Pelicans 7 12 – – 1 1
Sulidae Gannets 9 19 2 2 1 1
Phalacrocoracidae Shags 39 57 12 13 – –
Fregatidae Frigatebirds 5 11 – – 2 2
Anatidae Marine ducks 18 27 – – – –
Scolopacidae Phalaropes 2 2 – – 2 2
Chionididae Sheathbills 2 5 – – – –
Stercorariidae Skuas 7 10 1 1 4 4
Laridae Gulls 51 78 3 3 – –
Sternidae Terns, noddies 43 121 10 11 8 8
Rynchopidae Skimmers 2 4 – – – –
Alcidae Auks, puffins 22 45 – – – –
Total 359 633 84 96 56 62
Figure 5.2 (from Croxall et al. 2012, supplementary material): The number of breeding and resident
seabird species by country in each IUCN category (excluding Least Concern). FST, French Southern
Territories; SGSSI, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands; FI(M), Falkland Islands (Malvinas);
H&M, Heard Island & McDonald Islands.
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