PERU CURRENT 



formerly ranged from Cape Horn to northern Peru and the 

 Galapagos Islands, or throughout the path of the Peru Current. 

 This genus is one that has successfully jumped the northern 

 barrier of tropical surface waters, as a related species {Arctoce- 

 phalus townsendi) is now a resident of the lower California 

 coast and inhabits Guadalupe and the San Benito Islands 

 (beyond Lat. 28° N.). 

 The Peru Current is a narrow stream and the composite range of 

 endemic marine fauna of the Peruvian Coast is likewise a narrow rib- 

 bon in the ocean, hugging the shore as it projects toward the Equator 

 from the far south. A voyage offshore across the Peru Current reveals 

 the change in fauna, which is closely correlated with the changes in 

 surface temperatures. A few miles offshore the plankton, sea lions, 

 penguins, cormorants, kelp gulls, and Sub -Antarctic petrels, with 

 thousands of fish species, all disappear, and another oceanic region 

 with a totally different fauna appears. 



The following species are considered native to the Peru Current: 



SOUTHERN DERIVATIVES 



Peruvian Penguin 

 Peruvian Storm Petrel 

 Eliot's Storm Petrel 

 Potoyunco 

 Guanay 



(Spheniscus humholdli) 

 (Oceanodroma tethys kelsalli) 

 (Oceanites gracilis gracilis) 

 (Pelicanoides garnotii) 

 (Phalacrocorax bougainvillei) 



PAN-TROPICAL DERIVATIVES 

 Alcatraz (Pelicanus occidentalis thagus) 



Piquero (Sula variegata) 



Peruvian Tern (Sterna lorata) 



PROBABLE NORTHERN ORIGIN 

 Gray gull (Larus modestus) 



DOUBTFUL SOURCE 



Markham's Storm Petrel 

 Hornby's Petrel 

 Belcher's Gull 

 Inca Tern 



(Oceanodroma markhami) 

 (Oceanodroma hornbyi) 

 (Larus belcheri) 

 (Laroslerna inca) 



The birds of Sub-Antarctic affinities which extend their breeding 



ranges northward into the Peru Current are as follows: 



Magellanic Penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) 



Sooty Shearwater (Pufjinus griseus) 



Frigate Petrels (Fregalia) 



Red-footed Cormorant (Phalacrocorax gaimardi) 



Tern (Sterna hirundinacea) 



The area of the Peru Current is visited by many varieties of birds 

 from distant parts of the Pacific during the various seasons, but the 

 native species, found only in the waters off the coast between Ecuador 

 and Chile, are more abundant and noticeable. Included among the 

 migrants are certain species of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic alba- 

 trosses, petrels such as Daption, Priocella, Macronectes, Procellaria, 

 and Oceanites oceanicus, as well as forms of the skua (Catharacta). 

 There are also seasonal migrants from the outer Pacific such as the 

 Sooty Tern (Sterna fuscata). Migrants from the Galapagos Islands 

 and tropical waters to the north are the albatross from Hood Island 

 (Diomedea irrorata), a Gadfly Petrel (Plerodroma phaeopygia), the 

 Blue-faced Booby (Sula daclylatra), the Swallow-tailed Gull (Creagrus 

 furcatus), the Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus), and at intervals a 

 tropic bird (Phaethon aethereus). Casual visitors from the Northern 

 Hemisphere include petrels such as Loomelania melania, gulls like 

 Larus pipixcan and jaegers, and phalaropes from the Arctic interior 

 of North America. 



The Peru Current, besides being responsible for the dramatic 

 distribution of cold Antarctic water, with a biologic cycle of its own, 

 has yet another unique item of interest worthy of note. This is guano, 

 a by-product of the cycle, the importance of which was long over- 

 looked. Guano, although mentioned in the Royal Commentaries of 

 the Inca and known by the early conquerors, was neglected as an 

 item of world trade, until Humboldt advised its use as a fertilizer soon 

 after 1800. Introduced into the United States by 1825 and England 

 by 1840, the first users were fearful of its potency because of the aston- 

 ishing results from its application as a fertilizer. After repeated ex- 

 periments it came into general use as a safe and cheap fertilizer. Some 

 early estimates describe guano as being 33 times more effective than 

 any other equivalent. 



Soon after 1847 it was a principal industry in Pent, amounting 

 to nearly three quarters of Peru's annual income. By 1874, in spite 

 of early predictions of an inexhaustible supply, most of the original 

 accumulations had been removed. Less worthy deposits have been 

 found around rocky islands in other parts of the world, but none com- 

 pare with the quality or size of the Peruvian deposits. This is no 

 doubt due to the peculiar aridity of the climate of Peru which pre- 

 served the deposits without loss. 



Huge profits from the guano trade were realized in the early days. 

 Profits from a single trip by a sailing vessel at this time amounted to 

 as much as $10,000. Hundreds of vessels loaded at the coastal islands 

 each year. Rapid exploitation with no attempt at conservation soon 

 depleted first deposits. Four decades later, after implementation of a 

 government program for conservation of both producing birds and 

 deposits, the industry had become permanent. The Compania Ad- 

 ministradora del Guano in Peru is the official agency controlling and 

 operating the producing islands. The extraordinary commercial 

 success of the company is no doubt due to the wisdom of the admini- 

 strators who have conducted the industry with reference to the wel- 

 fare and perpetuation of the valuable sea birds. A rotating extraction 

 schedule is followed which provides for non-molestation of the birds 

 and will in time restore the balance so blunderingly upset during the 

 total exploitation era. Guano-fever burned as fiercely as gold-fever 

 in the early days and the islands were a focus of greed and corruption 

 that is now almost forgotten. Misery and slavery were attached to 

 a commercial enterprise represented by the towering spars of sailing 

 ships from the ends of the earth, whose skippers were greedy for the 

 stinking dust from these remote Peruvian islands. 



Excavating guano in the Chincha Islands about i860. The layers here are 

 nearly 800 feet thick. 



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