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    Current work towards estimating krill consumption by flying seabirds in CCAMLR Divisions 58.4.1 and 58.4.2

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    Document Number:
    WG-EMM-16/67
    Author(s):
    L. Emmerson and C. Southwell
    Submitted By:
    Dr Colin Southwell (Australia)
    Approved By:
    Ms Doro Forck (CCAMLR Secretariat)
    Abstract

    We describe current work to obtain krill consumption estimates for flying seabirds in CCAMLR Divisions 58.4.1 and 58.4.2. We are currently compiling a database of search and count effort for flying seabirds to assess the extent and rigour of existing data, and conducting a large-scale abundance survey of snow petrels. We plan to adapt a bio-energetics model developed for breeding Adélie penguins and apply it to flying seabird species by extending and generalising the code to make it suitable for other species, and searching the literature, or where necessary collecting new data, to estimate parameter input values. We have conducted tracking work on four species in two regions over two years to determine the foraging distribution and to develop predictive foraging-environment models to partition consumption estimates over space.