Visual observations of the Antarctic sea birds during the FIBEX cruise of the KAIYO MARU

The KAIYO MARU, a research vessel of the Fishery Agency, made the FIBEX survey in the Indian sector of the Antarctic Ocean during the austral summer of 1980-1981. At the same time, visual observations of sea birds were carried out along the cruise tracks of the survey. Sea birds were observed in the area from 30°E to 85°E longitudinally and on the south of 55°S, particularly from 61°S to the ice edge. Species and number of the sea birds recognized in a ten minutes observation were recorded in the sheets prepared for these observations. The ten-minute observations were usually made every four hours, six times a day. The bird species observed frequently were as follows : antarctic petrel, white-chinned petrel, cape pigeon, light-mantled sooty albatross, prions, and so on. These birds were evenly observed longitudinally and showed a circumpolar distribution. Latitudinally, however, they showed a different distribution, though they extended to the south with the retreat of the ice edge. The distribution of these birds was also considered with the records of acoustic estimation of krill

Visual observations of sea birds in the Southern Ocean in the 1979-1980 summer

Visual observations of sea birds in the Southern Ocean were carried out on board three ships during the austral summer of 1979-1980; two ships for exploratory fishing of krill, a factory ship SHINANO MARU and a trawler ORIENTO MARU, and one ship for the population census of minke whale, KYO MARU (a catcher). The surveyed area was south of 63°S between 0°E and 115°E in longitude. Ten minutes within a day were allocated for bird observations. The species and the number of sea birds observed in ten minutes were recorded on a data sheet which was a slightly modified standard recording card of SCAR prepared for this survey. The bird species that occurred in a wide longitudinal range were the breeders on the Antarctic Continent or on the adjacent island in austral summer, i. e. antarctic petrel, snow petrel, cape pigeon, and Wilson's storm petrel. Light-mantled sooty albatross and sooty shearwater that are breeding on the sub-Antarctic islands also occurred in a wide range; these two birds are highly pelagic in habit and often disperse south to the edge of the pack ice in summer