Keywords
Bird Monitoring
Kerala
Karnataka
Shearwaters
Storm-Petrels
Jaegers
Boobies.
How to Cite
Abstract
Studies on marine birds of India are scarce and available information is based mainly on wind-blown bird data and a few isolated off-shore trips. An attempt was made in recent years to address this lacuna by conducting off-shore trips from the coasts of Karnataka and Kerala to monitor marine birds. We report the significant results from these studies and demonstrate a simple and sustainable methodology for similar future surveys. The study indicates the presence of a good number of pelagic birds off the south-west coast of India belonging to ten species, including a few significant records for the two states. Comparison with prior wind-blown records suggests a negative correlation for a large number of species indicating that such off-shore surveys are the only way to document the status of pelagic birds in our waters. TMs study also indicates the presence of both boreal and austral breeders wintering and summering in our region respectively. We highlight the potential threats to marine birds in the Arabian Sea and emphasise the need for such future studies. We summarise the hurdles, improvements, and actions in executing such surveys, potentially involving collaboration of larger regional agencies involved in marine research.References
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