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Two species of seabirds foraged in contrasting marine habitats across the cold-water belt along the coast of northern Hokkaido in the southwestern Okhotsk Sea

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Abstract

To understand the environmental factors affecting the density of foraging seabirds across the cold-water belt in the southwestern Okhotsk Sea, we conducted a 1-day (180-km transect length) shipboard seabird survey off the northeastern coast of Hokkaido during summer in 2019, along with acoustic observations of potential prey (zooplankton and fish) biomass, thermosalinograph measurements, and CTD observations. Planktivorous short-tailed shearwaters Ardenna tenuirostris (66% of total seabirds) and piscivorous rhinoceros auklets Cerorhinca monocerata (28%) were predominant, but foraged in contrasting habitats. A large foraging flock of shearwaters was observed in the cold-water belt zone, including its front with coastal Soya Warm Current Water and the offshore Fresh Surface Okhotsk Sea Water, where surface chlorophyll a concentrations were the highest but not related to their prey (zooplankton) biomass at any spatial scale between 4.6 and 9.2 km. In contrast, the density of auklets was high in the coastal Soya Warm Current Water, where the acoustically determined fish biomass was large, and showed a positive relationship with the fish biomass especially in the lower layer (29–104 m depth) at any spatial scale. This species-specific difference in response to prey biomass might be related to prey-searching behaviors; i.e., rhinoceros auklets search prey underwater visually, but short-tailed shearwater can use both visual and olfactory cues to locate zooplankton patches from the air.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the captain, officers, and crews of the T/S Oshoro-maru for their help with field surveys. Keizo Ito and Sarufutsu Fishery Cooperative provided marine information on the study region. Nodoka Yamada helped with acoustic data analysis. We also thank two anonymous referees for their helpful comments that greatly improved the manuscript. This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 20H03054 (Y. Mitani) and 19J01267 (B. Nishizawa) and by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (JPMEERF20214002) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan.

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  1. Yoko Mitani

    Present address: Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, 2-24 Tanaka-Sekiden-cho, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8203, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Polar Research, Midori-cho 10-3, Tachikawa, Tokyo, 190-8518, Japan

    Bungo Nishizawa

  2. Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 041-8611, Japan

    Jumpei Okado, Atsushi Yamaguchi, Tohru Mukai & Yutaka Watanuki

  3. Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, 20-5 Benten-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 040-0051, Japan

    Yoko Mitani

  4. Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

    Tomohiro Nakamura

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  1. Bungo Nishizawa
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Correspondence to Bungo Nishizawa.

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Nishizawa, B., Okado, J., Mitani, Y. et al. Two species of seabirds foraged in contrasting marine habitats across the cold-water belt along the coast of northern Hokkaido in the southwestern Okhotsk Sea. Fish Sci 88, 109–118 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-021-01576-9

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