Greenpeace: The Expedition: Science

The Science
Patagonian toothfish are not the only species being decimated by pirate fishing vessels. The science team on board the Arctic Sunrise documents the impact pirate fishing has on a wide array of bird species in the Southern Ocean.Don't forget to feast your eyes on our Bird of the Week!

Longline Fishing
What is longline fishing and why is it so detrimental to a variety of wildlife?

Campaign Report
Track the progress of our campaign by checking out these periodic reports from Greenpeace's onboard campaign team.

Ship Log & Webcast
What's daily life like on a Greenpeace ship? How does the crew prepare for these dramactic actions? And just what is a bosun anyway? Get first hand accounts from our crew.

Last Year
In 1999 Greenpeace embarked on an expedition to expose pirate fishing in the Southern Ocean and caught the notorious, Spanish-owned pirate vessel Salvora illegally fishing in the French waters around Kerguelen Island. Here's an overview of that campaign...

The Science

The ocean surrounding Antarctica is perhaps the last true marine wilderness on the planet. This fragile ecosystem is being pushed to the breaking point by pirate fishing. While the toothfish is the pirates' most obvious victim, up to 100,000 sea-birds, including most species of albatross, are hooked and killed on longlines in the Southern Ocean each year.

The science team onboard the Arctic Sunrise spends each day documenting the number of sea birds and the variety of wildlife in the Southern Ocean. Their collected information will become part of a massive international database that enables scientists from around the world to study trends in bird species populations. We'll be posting their findings each week, so be sure to check back often to learn about the incredible diversity of the Southern Ocean.

Bird Sightings from the M/V Arctic Sunrise

light-mantled Sooty Albatross
Notes:

27 March - may have seen the last of the white-chinned petrels - with us for virtually whole trip. In the past few days their numbers have dwindled to four birds. Sunday also saw first sightings of flying fish on our northward journey - a sure sign of warm waters (water temperature = 20 C).

The two new Pterodroma species are tropical spp which breed on Reunion; the White-faced storm petrels hereabouts appear to be from the breeding populations of SW Australia.

6 March:
"The Chatham albatross breeds only at Pyramid Rock in the Chatham Islands, east of New Zealand. Conventional wisdom is that this species remains between Chathams and eastern South Pacific. This appears to be the first record for the species in the central south Indian Ocean, and will be fully reported in an appropriate bird journal."

20 Februay:
"Spotted what looked like a small yellow plastic bottle 20 metres off port. No sooner had I spotted it than a stage 4 wandering albatross did so as well. The bird swung round and landed next to it, and started tossing it around with its bill. To an albatross it must look just like a piece of kelp frond (regular surface debris) and likely to be encrusted with barnacles or other digestible materials. Hopefully the wanderer did not swallow it, but if it did there is the possibility of nasty consequences.

So, a carelessly disposed of shampoo bottle, God knows where, ends up being a risk factor for an albatross in the southern ocean."

19 February:
"During the first few days beyond coastal waters we saw relatively few species - we were too far north and east of Indian Ocean breeding sites. Now we're beginning to get the more typical subantarctic species - wanderers, white chins, soft- plumaged, etc...

Culmulative Sightings as of 2 April 2000

Key:

= at risk from longlining. TF= Toothfish Fishery SBT = Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishery

Species

Five new species: White-tailed tropic bird, Brown booby, Jouanin’s petrel, Roseate tern & Curlew sandpiper

Total: 66 species

Penguins: (4 species)

King penguin – Aptenodytes patagonicus (eggs, small chicks, large chicks, breeding adults)
Gentoo penguin – Pygoscelis papua (adults)
Macaroni penguin – Eudyptes chrysolophus (adults)
Rockhopper penguin - Eudyptes chrysocome (chicks, adults)

Albatrosses: (12 species)

Wandering albatross - Diomedea exulans Stages: 1, 2, 2/3, 3, ľ, 4, 5, 5/6, 6/7, 7 (TF & SBF)
Northern Royal albatross - Diomedea sanfordi Stage: 2 (SBT)
Southern Royal albatross - Diomedea epomophora Stages: 2, 4 (TF & SBT)
Indian Ocean Yellow-nosed albatross - Thalassarche carteri - adult and immature (SBT)
Shy albatross - Thalassarche cauta (SBT)
Salvin’s albatross – Thalassarche salvini (adult) (SBT)
Campbell albatross - Thalassarche impavida - adult (TF & SBT)
Black-browed albatross - Thalassarche melanophrys - adult, immature, and juvenile (TF & SBT)
Grey headed albatross - Thalassarchechrysostoma - adult, juvenile - (TF & SBT)
Sooty albatross - Phoebetria fusca - adult and juvenile - (SBT)
Chatham albatross - Thalassarche eremita - adult
Light-mantled sooty albatross – Phoebetria palpebrata (TF)

Note - Wandering, Tristan, Antipodean & Gibson’s albatross - all previously called “Wandering albatross” are essentially indistinguishable at sea)

Petrels: (27 species)

Large petrels: (4 species)

Northern giant petrel - Macronectes halli - adult and immature (TF & SBT)
Southern giant petrel - Macronectes giganteus - adult (TF)
White-chinned petrel - Procellaria aequinoctialis - adult - (TF & SBT)
Grey Petrel - Procellaria cinerea (TF & SBT)

Southern petrels: (2 species)

Cape pigeon – Daption capense
Blue petrel – Halobaena caerulea

Shearwaters: (6 species)

Short-tailed shearwater - Puffinus tenuirostris
Flesh-footed shearwater - Puffinus carneipes
Wedge-tailed shearwater - Puffinis pacificus
Little shearwater - Puffinus assimilis
Sooty shearwater – Puffinus griseus
Audubon’s shearwater – Puffinus iherminieri

Gadfly petrels: (9 species)

Great-winged petrel (aka - grey-faced petrel) - Pterodroma macroptera
Soft-plumaged petrel - Pterodroma mollis
Schlegel’s petrel (aka - Atlantic petrel) - Pterodroma incerta
White-headed petrel – Pterodroma lessonii
Kerguelen petrel – Pterodroma brevirostris
Barau’s petrel – Pterodroma baraui
2 small dark petrels – possibly Bulwer’s petrel – Bulweria bulwerii - well south of usual range
Jouanin’s petrel – Bulweria fallax

Storm petrels: (4 species)