Fieldwork in Galicia Comes to an End 

Tracking the Galician Seabirds

Between April and August, the team deployed cutting-edge GPS tracking devices on multiple species to better understand how they use the marine environment.

Shags were tagged in the island of Ons, with an impressive 90% of the devices still transmitting after six months. Most birds remained close to their breeding area, within 15 km of the Arousa estuary, providing valuable insights into their local foraging ecology.

Yellow-legged and lesser black-backed gulls, tagged in Sisargas, revealed strong contrasts in movement. While most yellow-legged gulls regularly commuted inland—often visiting landfills—the lesser black-backed gulls showed more coastal behavior, with one individual initiating migration towards the south by early autumn.

Despite multiple attempts, the deployment of devices on European storm-petrels proved challenging. The difficulty of recapturing individuals in their rocky burrows prevented data recovery this season. This species, the smallest seabird breeding in Europe, spends most of its life far from land, returning to coastal islets only at night to breed—making it one of the most elusive and technically complex species to study.

Finally, in Coelleira Island, Cory’s shearwaters performed short foraging trips close to the coast, but one individual traveled over 200 km offshore, highlighting variability likely linked to breeding status. These large pelagic seabirds can cover vast distances, feeding mainly on small fish and squid, and often using dynamic soaring to glide effortlessly over ocean waves. 

The Iberian population remains poorly known, so these first tracking data from Galicia represent a key step toward understanding their distribution and habitat use in the region.

Conservation Relevance

Each dataset collected contributes to one of AMPLIAMAR's main goals: to identify priority marine areas for seabird conservation and support the expansion of the Natura 2000 network and Marine Protected Areas (RAMPE). By combining tracking data with environmental information, the project will help pinpoint key feeding grounds and potential risks affecting seabirds along the Iberian coast.

This campaign not only strengthens our understanding of the movement ecology of Atlantic seabirds but also showcases the importance of long-term monitoring to assess their responses to human pressures and environmental change.

Acknowledgments

This work was made possible thanks to the dedication of Álvaro Barros, Víctor García, Andreia Zuzana, Paula Domingo, and Celine Van Weelden, whose tireless fieldwork made this campaign a success. We also thank the Xunta de Galicia and the Parque Nacional Marítimo-Terrestre de las Islas Atlánticas de Galicia for providing the permits and support that enabled fieldwork in Galicia.

The AMPLIAMAR Project is funded by the Fundación Biodiversidad of the Fundación Biodiversidad of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Pleamar Programme, and co-financed by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (FEMPA) of the European Union.