Demersal trawling waste as a food source for Western Mediterranean seabirds during the summer

Abstract

We studied the use of demersal trawler discards by scavenging seabirds at one location in the western Mediterranean (Benidorm, SE Spain) from the end of June to the beginning of October 2000. Yellow-legged gull and Cory's shearwater were the most common species in the study area (52.35%, 35.49%) and behind boats (82.4%, 7.07%). Eight other seabird species were observed in much lower numbers following boats (Audouin's gull 2.6%, black-headed gull 2.3%, sandwich 1.5% , black 0.82% and common terns 0.97%, Balearic shearwaters 1.4%, storm-petrel 0.52% and shags 0.36%). Yellow-legged gulls were present behind trawlers in higher numbers than might have been expected by its abundance at sea, whereas Cory's shearwaters were less so.