7 July 2017
By New Scientist staff and Press
Association
Satellite-tracking of hundreds of
British and Irish seabirds has revealed new insights into where species search
for food at sea.
The study, which tracked and
modelled behaviour of kittiwakes, shags, razorbills and guillemots, could help
assess potential impacts from offshore wind farms and other activities and
where protected areas of the seas should be.
Lightweight GPS tags were fitted
to more than 1,300 adult birds from 29 different colonies around the UK and
Ireland, to track where they went once they left their breeding colonies to
catch fish at sea.
The data was used to create a
computer model for each species to predict important areas at sea for other
colonies where no tracking took place, estimating where birds travelled from
some 5,500 breeding sites.
Results reveal the extensive
areas of sea the four seabird species use – at least 1.5 million square
kilometres, an area three times the size of Spain.
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