Weather Systems Determine the Non-breeding Distribution of Wandering Albatrosses over Southern Oceans

Abstract

The tracked flights of 14 non-breeding Wandering Albatrosses captured in Australia and New Zealand provided 3946 locations in the Tasman Sea, around southern Australia, and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Nearly all of the locations (98.7%) were between 30°S and 50°S, a zone where circumpolar weather systems enable albatrosses to fly in any direction and thus exploit fully this southern environment. It is also a zone where currently only the limited Exclusive Economic Zones offer a potential for enforceable legislative protection of this endangered species from the hazards of international longline fisheries.