Book Reviewsan Inventory of Breeding Seabirds of the Caribbeanpetrels Night and Day
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Book ReviewsAn Inventory of Breeding Seabirds of the CaribbeanPetrels Night and Day. A Sound Approach GuideAlbatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World Author(s): David S. LeeIan C. T. NisbetRichard R. Veit Source: WaterbirdsWaterbirdsWaterbirdsWaterbirds, 32 32 32 32(4 4 4 4):604 604 606 608-609 606 608 609. 2009 2009 2009 2009. Published By: The Waterbird Society DOI: 10.1675/063.032.0416 URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1675/063.032.0416 BioOne (www.bioone.org) is an electronic aggregator of bioscience research content, and the online home to over 160 journals and books published by not-for-profit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/terms_of_use. Usage of BioOne content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial use. Commercial inquiries or rights and permissions requests should be directed to the individual publisher as copyright holder. BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. Book Reviews An Inventory of Breeding Seabirds of the Two of these chapters deserve special rec- Caribbean.—By Patricia E. Bradley and Rob- ognition. Mackin’s Geographic Information ert L. Norton (Eds.). 2009. University Press System (Chapter 27) is the foundation of this of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 353 pp., 44 publication. This program is an important plates, 51 maps, 2 appendices. Hardcover: tool for monitoring long-term changes in $75.00 US. (ISBN 978-0-8130-3329-7). seabird populations. It currently tracks over This volume is essential to anyone inter- 800 nesting sites for 23 species. From this da- ested in marine birds of the tropical Western tabase one can map distributions and abun- Atlantic and is a key reference for all those dance of species, look at seabird populations involved in studies and conservation of trop- of specific countries or individual nesting ical seabirds. In addition to being an impor- sites, track changes, piece together informa- tant reference, it will serve as a benchmark tion such as ‘on a region wide basis 13.4% of for marine bird conservation within the re- the documented nesting colonies are known gion. Individual chapters summarize the dif- to be extirpated or severely depleted,’ or ferent nesting areas within each country and show that regionally there are only 580-750 review the nesting distribution and popula- pairs of Masked Boobies. The chapter also tion sizes of seabirds on the various islands. identifies the 25 most important nesting col- Current threats to each country’s seabirds onies and the 25 most endangered sites. This are explained and conservation laws and self-funded program will be important for needs are summarized. The text covers 23 the long-term conservation management of species of seabirds nesting in the Caribbean. Caribbean seabirds. Wiley and Hayes (Chap- Seven represent species or subspecies en- ter 31) prepared an extensive bibliography demic to the region, and 18 (78%) are con- of regional seabird publications with over sidered to be of some level of regional to glo- 1,500 references. Considering the factors of bal conservation concern. time (the earliest references date back to the Like the earlier Status and Conservation of early 1700s), the various political units and West Indian Seabirds (Schreiber and Lee 2000) languages of the region, and the diversity of this publication is an outgrowth of a Society of journals, newsletters and reports in which Caribbean Ornithology’s seabird workshop in these references appeared, this compilation 1997. This volume addresses the topic on a was a major task. country-by-country basis and covers a slightly Comparing estimates provided in Halew- wider area, while the former covered the is- yn and Norton (1984), Schreiber and Lee sues from a species perspective. The core of (2000) and the current volume, there are the book is 25 chapters on the marine bird several trends. Obviously over time the esti- faunas of individual island nations. However, mates have been fine-tuned with expanded chapters in the book not addressing specific numbers of surveys resulting in increased ac- island faunas should be mentioned. Some curacy. The current population estimates are bring information compiled by Schreiber and better documented than the earlier ones, Lee (2000) up to date while others help to and are based on more recent and complete place island-specific information and region- data sets. Some of the ‘increases’ or ‘decreas- al seabird conservation issues into perspec- es’ in total population sizes can be attributed tive. In addition to an introductory chapter by to this. Yet, for a good number of species the the editors, there are chapters on a geograph- estimates show sharp declines, often by 50% ic information system of West Indian seabird or more, in just a quarter of a century. Over- breeding sites, and on threats, status and con- all, the estimates are quite scary; those of us servation of Caribbean seabirds. The final addressing the issue earlier had assumed, or chapter is a bibliography. at least hoped, that as our knowledge be- 604 BOOK REVIEWS 605 came more complete we would find that the adult bird which was unlikely to have been a sizes of a number of important colonies had breeding individual; in Plate 30, a photo of a been grossly underestimated, or that key tern colony in Cuba, the birds identified as nesting sites had been overlooked. This does Common Terns are, in fact, Roseate Terns. not appear to be the case. The nesting of Common Terns in the Anti- As would be expected there is consider- lles needs verification. able variation in the depth of coverage be- Prior to the last several decades, interest tween the various island chapters. This re- in West Indian bird conservation had been sults from differential amounts of local infor- mostly directed toward endemic land birds mation, complexity of the faunal assemblag- and seabirds had been all but ignored. Ber- es, funding levels, local perceptions of the muda’s long standing laws, enforcement, relative importance of conservation issues, and management of nesting seabirds and and the knowledge of the individual chap- the success of their programs should be an ter’s authors. Some examples: The chapter inspiration for all island nations in address- on the Bahamas is extremely well done de- ing conservation issues. Gochfield et al. spite the fragmented nature of the country, (1994) reported on other successful and its diverse seabird fauna, and the fact that partly successful conservation efforts on Cul- many of the more remote islands have been ebra, Desecheo, Jamaica and Aruba. Coun- infrequently visited. The chapter on Bermu- tries in the West Indies and Greater Caribbe- da is almost totally lacking in literature cita- an should, by now, be aware of the problems tions, making it difficult to understand the and the solutions, and the fact that the pro- basis for many of the author’s statements. tection and management of seabird popula- The decades of dedicated conservation work tions is in their hands. The publications of by David Wingate, for example, are hardly Halewyn and Norton (1984), Schreiber and acknowledged and not cited. The Cuban Lee (2000), and the volume under review chapter omitted the only papers published are giving a consistent message. since the late 1800s on the status of the Although some island nations have vari- White-tailed Tropicbird on that island, de- ous laws protecting seabirds, in most cases spite one of these being co-authored by a Cu- the sites themselves are not protected and ban biologist and both being published in enforcement is all but nonexistent. As coast- journals based in the West Indies. al development and tourism continue to ex- The occurrence of nesting Common pand, more remote and out-of-the-way is- Terns throughout the West Indies remains lands, the very sites on which nesting sea- problematic. In the past, various authors birds are now dependent, will be targeted for have indicated they occur at scattered sites development. It will be informative to watch throughout the region. While these terns un- as powerful Ministries of Tourism and Eco- questionably breed in Bermuda and on is- nomic Development compete with under- lands off the northern South American staffed conservation departments over the coast, their presence as a breeding species in future of coastal areas and uninhabited is- the Greater and Lesser Antilles needs verifi- lands and cays. And stay tuned as island na- cation. Earlier published reports of Com- tions turn to wind fields for local energy mon Terns being widespread would appear needs: the placement of the turbines in rela- to be mostly based on misidentification of tion to seabird nesting sites will require red-billed Roseate Terns. The problem arises much consideration as remote sites current- again in this volume, with reports of possible ly supporting relict nesting colonies of sea- nesting on Anguilla and Basse-Terre, and birds will be prime targets for energy devel- breeding in Barbuda, Cuba, St. Barts, Marti- opment. nique, and East Caicos. Information provid- Compared to previous publications that ed in this book does nothing to document chose to address the topic on the species lev- breeding. Plate 25, labeled as “Common el, the major strength of this volume is its Tern in breeding plumage”, shows a sub- country-by-country coverage of seabird pop- 606 WATERBIRDS ulations, with island-specific discussions of theme of the book is that most petrels are conservation issues and management needs.