Seabird Tracking Database

My work centres on using seabird tracking data to inform area-based management initiatives, and working with our Partners and other organisations on marine spatial planning and marine protected area proposals. This has included providing technical support for a candidate marine protected area on the High Seas (the North Atlantic Current and Evlanov Seamount MPA), and the description of Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs). I also manage a project in the West Indian Ocean that promotes the inclusion of seabird data in decision making processes in the region, and support the work of our Partners with their marine efforts.

My main role is to undertake analyses of tracking data, in particular to identify priority sites for conservation at national, regional and global levels, and to help address seabird bycatch. I also manage within BirdLife a project that links habitat preference, activity patterns and detections from novel bird-borne radars to quantify interactions of tracked wandering albatrosses with legal and illegal fishing vessels in the South Atlantic.

My main role is the identification of priority conservation sites for seabirds and marine megafauna under the frameworks of marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas, and Key Biodiversity Areas. Priority conservation sites are identified by incorporating estimates of predator abundance into key at-sea areas identified from the analysis of distribution data, primarily those data derived from animal tracking. Furthermore, I facilitate the inclusion of these sites into marine spatial planning initiatives.

I am a seabird ecologist and data analyst, with a focus on biologging data. I manage the BirdLife International Seabird Tracking Database. I lead work on our CCI Collaborative Fund project: Plastic connectivity: disentangling the problem of plastic pollution for pelagic seabirds. We are collating seabird tracking data and plastic pollution models to assess the risk of marine plastics exposure for petrels. I also work on seabird foraging behaviour and interactions with fisheries, in both temperate and tropical regions

The BirdLife International Marine Programme (BIMP) works on a range of marine issues impacting seabirds, including bycatch (trialing mitigation measures, promoting evidenced-based solutions, and working with Regional Fisheries Management Organizations), and promoting evidence-based regulations and guidance through a variety of national, regional, and international policy mechanisms. Read more about our work here: https://birdlife-hatch.org/topics/31466/page/the-birdlife-marine-programme