So we are on Isla Guañape Norte and this island is part of a big marine reserve
made of 33 sites belonging to the Peruvian government.
On Guañape you can find different species of seabirds, including Guanay cormorants,
Peruvian boobies, Peruvian pelicans, Inca terns, Humboldt penguins, South America sea lions.
But more than a big diversity of species, we have big numbers of fewer species.
So far now we have about 250,000 of Peruvian boobies and about 150,000 Guanay cormorants,
so that's being a good year for both the species on the islands.
I am Carlos Zavalaga.
I am a Peruvian seabird researcher, with a Ph.D. in marine biology.
I am currently working at Universidad Cientifica del Sur in Lima, Peru,
and I have come this year and the previous two, three years to this island
with my students to study the Peruvian boobies.
Peruvian boobies are feeding on anchovies and the commercial fisheries fish for anchovies.
So one of the main questions we had at the very beginning of the project with the Peruvian
boobies was what type of interaction they have with the commercial fisheries for anchovies.
For example, if the Peruvian boobies sight these vessels and follow them,
or if there are causes of mortality due to this interaction.
We hypothesize that this behavior is getting more frequent because the intensity of fishing
for anchovy can increase during some seasons
and probably they are fishing close to the islands.
One way to know it is monitoring the Peruvian boobies at sea.
To do this, we need to use small electronic devices to follow them.
With the devices we are recording their behavior at sea.
We will know where they are feeding, how deep they are diving, how much energy they would
probably be spending, the temperature of the ocean, and other variables.
When they return to the colony, what we do is weigh and measure the adults.
We want to know if they're doing well or not.
These devices are not transmitting anything.
They are recording all the information into a memory inside the logger.
So it means that we need to be very careful in choosing the right bird
because we need to recapture it.
The best decision is to select only those birds that have a small, medium sized chicks
because they will always return.
Based on this information, we will have a better idea of the population dynamics of
the Peruvian boobies, or the way they are competing with the commercial fisheries.
If this behavior is very recurrent or if the boobies depend on the fishing activities or not.
I think we will have a better idea on why the Peruvian booby population
is changing a lot in the last decades.