South Carolina Project: Determining the Movement Patterns and Habitat Use of Seabirds to Support Marine Spatial Planning Along the Atlantic Coast

South Carolina Project

Determining the Movement Patterns and Habitat Use of Seabirds to Support Marine Spatial Planning Along the Atlantic Coast

October 2011 - December 2012

Personnel

Patrick Jodice, Principal Investigator

Participating Agencies

CESU

We will use remote tracking technologies such as satellite transmitters and global location sensors to track movements and map use areas of individual seabirds along the Atlantic coast. We will target seabirds that are likely to use areas off of the mid-Atlantic coast. Data will allow us to better understand the link between multiple and widespread geographic regions such as the nearshore and pelagic zones of the mid- and south Atlantic US coasts and the islands and waters of The Bahamas and Caribbean. The proposed effort will build upon ongoing work by the PI.

Research Publications

Research Publications	Publication Date
Jodice, P.G.R., R.A. Ronconi, E. Rupp, G.E. Wallace, Y. Satge. 2015. First satellite tracks of the endangered Black-capped Petrel. Endangered Species Research 29:23-33. doi: 10.3354/esr00697 \| Abstract \| Download	November 2015	The Black-capped Petrel is an endangered seabird with fewer than 2,000 breeding pairs restricted to three confirmed breeding sites in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. To date, use areas at sea have been determined entirely from vessel-based surveys and opportunistic sightings and, as such, spatial and temporal gaps in our understanding of the species’ marine range are likely. To enhance our understanding of marine use areas we deployed satellite tags on three Black-capped Petrels breeding in the Sierra de Bahoruco National Park in the Dominican Republic along the border with Haiti, representing the first tracking study for this species and one of the first tracking studies for any breeding seabird in the Caribbean. During chick-rearing, petrels primarily used marine habitats in the southern Caribbean Sea, between the breeding site and the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. Maximum distance from the breeding sites ranged from ca. 500 – 1500 km during the chick-rearing period. During the post-breeding period, each bird dispersed north and used waters west of the Gulf Stream offshore of the mid- and southern Atlantic coasts of the USA, as well Gulf Stream waters and deeper pelagic waters east of the Gulf Stream in the vicinity of the Blake Spur and Charleston Bump. Maximum distance from the breeding sites ranged from ca. 2000 – 2200 km among birds during the nonbreeding period. In total, petrels used waters located within 14 different exclusive economic zones suggesting that evolving management strategies for this species will be benefitted by continued international collaboration.

Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: South Carolina Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources