TONe Seabird Monitoring Observatory (SMO)
The two largest seabird colonies in Queen Maud Land are at Svarthamaren and Jutulsessen. Potentially more than 50% of the world’s population of Antarctic Petrels breed in the area. The main food source of the Antarctic Petrel is krill that it obtains from the Southern Ocean. The Antarctic Petrels thus function as so-called bio-indicators for the marine environment, so that by monitoring the petrel colony one can take the pulse of the marine environment in the Southern Ocean.
NP has monitored and researched seabirds in Svarthamaren irregularly since the 1980s. Through TONe, NPI is further developing the monitoring by establishing automatic monitoring systems in two different colonies in the area.
TrollObsNetwork (Twitter)