Interactions between birds and marine platforms in the Santos Basin, Brazil

The records of this study were obtained from the Bird Management Plan for Platforms (PMAVE, in Portuguese), a Federal requirement of the environmental licensing processes of maritime oil and gas production in Brazil. The Plan’s main objective is to document all occurrences involving birds on the platforms. These records were collected on platforms present in Santos Basin, between April 2015 and March 2017, through direct observation and/or capture for rehabilitation. Of the recorded birds (n=62), about 80% were terrestrial species with high frequencies of Thraupidae (16%) and Columbidae (14%). There was a predominance of insectivorous birds (42%), and granivorous species (24%). Around 11% were waterbirds, and pelagic seabirds represented only 3% of the records. One of the hypotheses to explain these observations is that terrestrial birds and waterbirds access the platforms following support vessels or fishing vessels that operate near the platforms. Other factors such as food availability, the availability of roosting sites, disorientation by lights, and meteorological events may be involved. Flying birds may be influenced by storms, cyclones and other weather processes that force them offshore. There was no pattern in the data from the two years, so further data collection is necessary for a better understanding of the interactions between birdlife and the marine platforms, especially for terrestrial birds.