Struggling despite anthropogenic subsids: Northern gannets in the English Channel
Tangi Le Bot  1@  , Amélie Lescroël  2@  , Jerome Fort  3@  , Olivier Gimenez  4@  , Clara Peron  5, 6@  , Pascal Provost  7@  , David Grémillet  8@  
1 : Centre d'écologie fonctionnelle et évolutive  (CEFE)  -  Website
CNRS : UMR5175, Université Montpellier II - Sciences et techniques, Université Montpellier I, Université Paul Valéry - Montpellier III, École Pratique des Hautes Études [EPHE]
Campus CNRS - 1919 route de Mende - 34293 Montpellier cedex 5 -  France
2 : Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive - CNRS (UMR 5175)  (CEFE-CNRS)
CNRS : UMR5175
3 : LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés [La Rochelle]  (LIENSs)  -  Website
CNRS : UMR7266, Université de La Rochelle
Bâtiment Marie Curie Avenue Michel Crépeau 17 042 La Rochelle cx1 - Bâtiment ILE 2, rue Olympe de Gouges 17 000 La Rochelle -  France
4 : National Centre for Scientific Research  (CNRS)
cefe cnrs, CNRS : UMR5175
5 : MARine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation  (UMR MARBEC)  -  Website
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement : UMR_D 248, Institut français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer : UMR9190, Université de Montpellier : UMR9190, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique : UMR9190
Centre de Sète UMR MARBEC SETE - Avenue Jean Monnet - CS3017134203 SETE CEDEX -  France
6 : Centre de Synthèse et d'Analyse sur la Biodiversité  (CESAB-FRB)  -  Website
Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité
Immeuble Henri Poincaré, Aix-en-Provence, France -  France
7 : Réserve Naturelle Nationale des Sept-Iles
LPO
Station LPO Ile Grande 22560 Pleumeur-Bodou -  France
8 : Centre d'écologie fonctionnelle et évolutive  (CEFE)  -  Website
CNRS : UMR5175
Campus CNRS - 1919 route de Mende - 34293 Montpellier cedex 5 -  France

Fisheries modify ecosystem balance, fishing through marine food webs, and producing large amount of discards subsidizing scavengers. Among them, seabirds are the most conspicuous and have been benefiting from anthropogenic food sources generated by fisheries. Yet this alternative feeding behaviour also exposes seabirds to new threats, such as accidental bycatch on fishing gear. Seabird-fishery interactions have been the focus of numerous studies, with a recent emphasis on seabird behavioural responses to fishing vessels. However, little is known about multi-annual dynamics in seabird-fishery interactions. To explore this facet, we performed GPS-tracking and stable isotopic analyses in Northern gannets (Morus bassanus) across a decade, during which they coexisted with fisheries in the English Channel. This allowed us to demonstrate that gannets favored fishery wastes when their natural prey (pelagic fish) became scarce, but that this dietary shift induced enhanced seabird foraging effort and reduced body condition. These changes were concomitant with reduced gannet reproductive success, and reduced growth rate of their breeding colony. Our work provides essential, novel understanding of scavengers-fisheries interactions, and confirms the detrimental effect of anthropogenic subsidies on seabirds. The ongoing discards reform of the European Union aiming at strongly reducing at-sea dumping of fishery waste will modify the foraging environment of marine scavengers. It seems essential to combine this discard ban with efficient rebuilding of pelagic fish stocks, which are a pivotal element of marine trophic networks and an irreplaceable food source for vulnerable seabird populations such as Northern Gannets in the English Channel.


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