The rarest of all Alcids with less than 5000 pairs and listed as Vulnerable. Some 400 pairs breed in South Korea, the remainder on islands
off the Japanese coast, mainly Biro-Jima and Izu. They disperse north after breeding but don't go far from land. These shots were taken from a chartered boat at the end of the first S.W.Pacific Odyssey in 2007,
at that time it was very difficult to access the breeding areas. Very similar to Ancient Murrelet, which I have never managed to photograph, Ann saw six off the side of a ferry- I was on the other side! Of
course I saw the Lundy bird, but that wasn't approachable like the other Devon vagrant.
Taken Biro-Jima, Kyushu May 2007
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