Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00775:reg:18:p49
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00775
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 18 (pt 49/152)
Character Range: 175636–178675

Hoyo et al. 1992). While breeding, the species alternates short foraging trips to local waters with long foraging trips (up to 17 days) to the Polar Frontal Zone. Short trips allow greater chick provisioning, longer trips allow foraging at the Antarctic Polar Front, reducing competition close to the breeding grounds. Diet includes fish (particularly mycotphids), crustaceans and squid (Weimerskirch and Cherel 1998). Feeding occurs in very large flocks and it regularly feeds in association with other shearwaters, petrels, gannets and terns.

  Population Estimates and Trends
Skira (1996) estimated the global population to number 23 million individuals. The population trend is thought to be increasing in North America (BirdLife International 2019), however, the global population is suspected to be decreasing owing to ecosystem changes resulting from climate change (Brooke 2004). National trends are unknown, however the species is monitored at some locations in Tasmania, Victoria and NSW.

  Conservation Concerns and Actions
Previously, the species suffered substantial mortality from entanglement in gill nets set for salmon in the Northern Pacific, particularly off Japan with an estimated 40,000 birds captured per annum (DeGange and Day 1991, Uhlmann 2003). Between 1952 and 2001, bycatch by North Pacific driftnet fisheries accounted for the mortality of an estimated 4,600,000–21,200,000 Short-tailed Shearwaters (Uhlmann et al. 2005).
In Tasmania, the species is taken annually under licence as part of an indigenous commercial harvest and a non-indigenous recreational harvest during a declared open season, and permits are also issued for a small indigenous cultural harvest. Bag limits apply to recreational harvesters and cultural harvesters and the commercial harvest is self-managed. Only chicks are taken on a limited number of colonies and the season is restricted.

80 Wildlife Conservation Plan for Seabirds
Species profiles

Light pollution represents a potential threat to this species in parts of the range. A number much higher than anticipated, of (predominantly juvenile) shearwaters were found dead or injured as a result of being attracted to lights and grounded. Over a 15-year period of patrols on Phillip Island, Victoria (1999-2013), 8,871 fledglings were found grounded, 39 per cent of which were dead or dying. The incidence levels far exceed those of other shearwater spp., however fewer than 1 per cent of fledglings produced annually are thought to be affected by mortality from attraction to artificial light (Rodriguez et al. 2014).

Wrecks (mass-mortality events) have been reported, e.g. at Bering Sea 1997 (Hyrenbach et al. 2001) and in Australia 2013 (Peter and Dooley 2014) and are potentially linked to ecosystem changes caused by climate change and salmon productivity (Brooke 2004; Springer at al. 2018). Recent studies indicate that both young and adults suffer from the ingestion of marine plastic debris, with potentially adverse effects (Carey 2011).

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