Bertarelli-Annual-Report-2023-R9-low (1) - Flipbook - Page 37
Our Impacts in 2022
70°
Marine Science 2022
70°30’E
71°E
70°30’E
72°E
70°30’E
73°E
68°E
N
Salomon Islands
4°S
Eastern Peros Banhos
Island Group
Chagos
Archipelago
72°E
74°E
76°E
2°S
5°
5°30’S
70°E
36
Colony:
— DG
— DI
— NI
N
Nelson’s Island
6°
6°S
Western Great Chagos
Bank Island Group
Danger Island
6°30’S
8°S
Egmont Islands
Eastern Diego Garcia
Island Group
7°
10°S
0
7°30’S
0
80
160
240
200km
320km
Figure 1. The Chagos Archipelago in an Indian Ocean context showing the
four terrestrial Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (in red) within the
five atolls of Peros Banhos, Salomon Islands, Great Chagos Bank (includes
Nelson’s Island), Egmont Islands and Diego Garcia. The black circular
border in the inset box shows the boundary of the marine protected area.
This year, the seabird team investigated two previously
proposed marine IBAs, based on seaward extensions
to breeding colonies, and assessed the potential for
open ocean marine IBAs for the first time (Carr et al.,
2022). The study used up-to-date seabird status and
distribution information and global positioning system
tracking from red-footed booby – one of the most
widely distributed breeding seabirds on the archipelago
– to identify any open ocean marine IBAs (figure 2). Due
to overlapping boundaries of the seaward extension
to breeding colonies and pelagic areas of importance,
there is a single marine IBA in the central Indian Ocean
that lays entirely within the Chagos Archipelago
Marine Protected Area (figure 3). Covering 62,379
km2 it constitutes ~10% of the MPA and if designated,
would become the 11th largest marine IBA in the world
and fourth largest in the Indian Ocean. The paper
recommends that BirdLife International assess the
proposed Chagos Archipelago marine IBA and confirm
if appropriate.
100
Figure 2. The 511 foraging trips conducted by 194
Red-footed Booby from the three largest breeding
colonies in the Chagos Archipelago. Tracking took
place during 2016, 2018 and 2019 in both monsoon
seasons. White triangles denote breeding colonies.
DG = Diego Garcia, DI = Danger Island, NI = Nelson’s
Island. Grey circular line indicates the marine
protected area boundary. Inset, Red-footed Booby.
67º
68º
69º
70º
71º
72º
73º
74º
75º
2°S
76º
N
Peros Banhos
4°S
Salomon Islands
Three Brothers
Nelson’s Island
Eagle Island
6°S
Danger Island
Egmont Islands
8°S
Diego Garcia
10°S
0
100
200km
Figure 3. The proposed Chagos
Archipelago marine Important Bird
and Biodiversity Area (62,379 km²).
References: Carr, P., Votier, S., Koldewey, H., Godley, B., Wood, H., Nicoll, M.A.C. (2020) ‘Status and phenology of breeding seabirds and
a review of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas in the British Indian Ocean Territory’ - Bird Conservation International.,
22. 1017/S0959270920000295
Carr, P., Trevail, A.M., Koldewey, H.J., Sherley, R.B., Wilkinson, T., Votier, S.C. (2022) ‘Marine important bird and biodiversity areas in the
Chagos Archipelago’ – Bird Conservation International. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959270922000247