Seabird & marine mammal "hotspots" in polar seas

Different factors are affecting the homogeneity in the at-sea distribution of ¿top predators¿ in polar ecosystems ¿ and thus hindering simple calculations of the data as mean density: the fact that many seabirds are actually followers; the fact that many seabirds are observed during the breeding season flying to and from their colonies, mainly when feeding chicks on the nest; the fact that more and more hotspots of seabirds, cetaceans and seals were recently detected at seasonal peaks, mainly in autumn. This last aspect is developed and illustrated in some detail in this book. In the Arctic: feeding little auks half way between Spitsbergen and Greenland at the ice edge/ Polar Front, harp seals, fin whales, little auks and Brünnich¿s guillemots in the NE Greenland Sea, fulmars, common guillemots and humpback whales in the SW Greenland Sea, adults kittiwakes on four icebergs off SW Greenland, and fulmars, kittiwakes, harp seals and humpback whales S of Franz Josef Land. In Antarctica: large groups of Adélie and chinstrap penguins in the Weddell Sea, crabeater seal pods as well as Antarctic and snow petrels in the Amundsen Sea.