Sooty Shearwaters in the California Current System

A project of Gabon Olive Ridley Program.

click map for full-size version Map of Sooty Shearwater (#57689) indicates extensive use of the shelf edge in southern Monterey Bay. The shelf edge or "break" often is a productive area for seabirds to feed because krill and other forage fish aggregate along this bathymetric feature.

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Species: Sooty Shearwater
Life Stage: AHY
Gender: Female
Release Date: 2005-06-25 08:04:00
Release Location: Capitola
Last Location: 2005-09-25 21:55:23

Background

Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus) is the numerically dominant seabird in the California Current System (CCS; British Columbia to Baja Mexico) during the upwelling season from May to September. The shearwater’s affinity for fishes associated with upwelling centers, including anchovy, sardine, and juvenile rockfishes, leads to predictable aggregations in coast California. Single flocks can number in the 100s of thousands of individuals and often extend for several kilometers in narrow bands just off the coastline. Shearwaters are highly mobile, capable of traveling 800 km per day, and thus are able to respond to changes in oceanic conditions and prey resources over very short time scales (i.e., hours to days) while integrating information about prey availability over large spatial scales (i.e., CCS; 100,000 sq. km). Thus, movement patterns and habitat use of shearwaters provide a convenient measure of biological response to environmental variability within upwelling systems.

See archived project to compare with 2004 tracks:
http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?project_id=46