Just a sailing superstition? Wilson's storm petrel presence at commercial trawlers at golfo San Jorge, Argentina and its relationship with weather conditions

Abstract

Wilson’s Storm Petrels spend the austral winter and spring (May to October) at sea.Studies in the Golfo San Jorge, Patagonian Shelf, showed the presence of this pet-rel in seabird assemblages associated with commercial trawlers. A sailing supersti-tion holds that the appearance of storm petrel foretells bad weather. By way of con-firming this traditional belief, the aim of this study is to relate the appearance of theWilson Storm Petrel with the weather conditions at sea and the feeding behaviourimplications. Information about the presence and abundance was gathered on boardfrom a total of 253 hauls during 2005, 2006 and 2008. A total of 65 individualswere recorded in 30 (11.86%) of fishing hauls. The number and presence of WilsonStorm Petrels be correlated with low atmospheric pressure. Given that they areamong of the most abundant seabirds of the world, detailed data on interactionswith fisheries and weather conditions at sea are not only interesting for analyzetheir association with fisheries or foretells bad weather, but may also be useful formonitoring the Southern Oceans.