Notes on the effects of E1 Niño on the seabirds of the Mollendo district, southwest Peru, in 1983

In the austral summer of 1982–83 the cool Peru Coastal Current Zone of the Pacific Coast of South America was affected by the strongest and most prolonged incursion of the warm El Niño Current in at least 58 years. An account is given of the visual effects of the disturbance on the seabirds of the Mollendo district on the coast of southwest Peru. With one exception, local numbers of the endemic cool water species were drastically reduced, with little evidence of recovery up to April 1984. During the period when El Niño was at its height, several warm water species of seabirds, previously either virtually or completely unknown at Mollendo, were recorded.