Male Imperial Cormorant (<i>Phalacrocorax atriceps</i>) instrumented with a water resistant video camera.

<p>Photograph illustrating a camera attached to the upper back feathers of a bird.</p

Still frames taken from Imperial cormorants (<i>Phalacrocorax atriceps</i>) videos.

<p>Representative examples showing a) the presence of a penguin in the ascent phase of a dive, b) a bird at the sea surface swallowing an Argentine seabass, c) a bird ascending through the water column with a curk-eel, and d) a bird carrying a Channel bull blenny. Each picture date and time is not the real one but the one provided by the camera.</p

Body position of Imperial cormorants while foraging along the seabed.

<p>Diagram showing the body position a) while searching for prey along the sea floor in the <i>predominantly gravel</i> microhabitat (the black arrow represents the extension and contraction of the neck as the birds forages) b) while searching along the seafloor in the <i>rocky</i> microhabitat and c) while capturing and consuming prey during the bottom phase of dives. Striped rectangles indicate the sea floor.</p

Frequency distribution (%) of pixel brightness values.

<p>Representative examples of a) a picture classified as belonging to <i>Zone 1</i>, b) a picture classified as belonging to <i>Zone 2</i> and c) a picture from <i>Zone 3</i>.</p

Characteristics of the dives and capture events of 12 male Imperial cormorants (<i>Phalacrocorax atriceps</i>) carrying animal-borne video cameras breeding at Punta León, Patagonia, Argentina.

<p>Characteristics of the dives and capture events of 12 male Imperial cormorants (<i>Phalacrocorax atriceps</i>) carrying animal-borne video cameras breeding at Punta León, Patagonia, Argentina.</p

General characteristics of the recorded foraging activities performed by 12 male Imperial cormorants (<i>Phalacrocorax atriceps</i>) carrying animal-borne video cameras breeding at Punta León, Patagonia, Argentina.

<p>General characteristics of the recorded foraging activities performed by 12 male Imperial cormorants (<i>Phalacrocorax atriceps</i>) carrying animal-borne video cameras breeding at Punta León, Patagonia, Argentina.</p

Contaminants in Tracked Seabirds Showing Regional Patterns of Marine Pollution

Ocean-scale monitoring of pollution is challenging. Seabirds are useful indicators because they travel over a broad foraging range. Nevertheless, this coarse spatial resolution is not fine enough to discriminate pollution in a finer scale. Previous studies have demonstrated that pollution levels are higher in the Sea of Japan and South and East China Seas than the Northen Pacific Ocean. To test these findings in a wide-ranging animal, we tracked streaked shearwaters (<i>Calonectris leucomelas</i>) from four islands in Japan using global positioning system (GPS) and measured persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the oil of their preen glands. The POPs did not change during 6 to 21 days when birds from Awashima were foraging only in the Sea of Japan, while it increased when they crossed to the Pacific through the Tsugaru Strait and foraged along the eastern coast of Hokkaido where industrial cities occur. These results indicate that POPs in the oil reflect relatively short-term exposure. Concentrations of POPs displayed greater variation among regions. Total polychlorinated biphenyls were highest in birds foraging in a small area of the semiclosed Seto Inland Sea surrounded by urbanized coast, <i>p,p</i>′-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was highest in birds foraging in the East China Sea, and total hexachlorocyclohexanes were highest in birds foraging in the Sea of Japan. All were lowest in birds foraging in the Pacific. This distribution of POPs concentration partly agrees with previous findings based on mussels, fish, and seawater and possibly reflects the mobility and emission sources of each type of POP. These results highlight the importance of information on the foraging area of highly mobile top predators to make them more effective monitors of regional marine pollution