Known population and distribution of cormorants,shearwaters and Storm Petrels in the Mediterranean
ZOTIER R., THIBAULT J.C. and GUYOT I.Abstract:
Five species of Procellariidae, Hydrobatidae and Phalacrocoracidae breed in the Mediterranean: the Cory's Shearwater Caloneetris diomedea (57,000-76,000 breeding pairs), the Mediterranean Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan (18,000 known breeding pairs), the Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagieus melitensis (8,500-15,000 known breeding pairs), the Shag Phalaeroeorax aristotelis desmarestii (about 7,000 breeding pairs) and the Cormorant Phalaeroeorax earbo (8,000 breeding pairs). Large populations of seabirds occur on the Balearics archipelago, in the Sicilian channel and in the north of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The status of birds in the Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Seas needs to be c1arified by further survey.