The following table indicates the geographic region inhabited by a variety of species about which so little is known that they are unlikely to be found in any geographic queries. Users fishing in these areas should be aware that these species may also be at risk in their fisheries. Furthermore, any bycaught specimens that could possibly be any of these species would be of particular interest to the scientific community, and should be photographed and documented.

See our page on Identifying Dead Seabirds for more on what to collect for specimens of unknown species.

Poorly known species unlikely to show up in spatial searches due to small range sizes.

Species		IUCN Status	Geographic Region	Notes
Southwest Pacific
Pterodroma occulta	Vanuatu Petrel	NE*	Southwest Pacific: Northern Vanuatu	Virtually no range known
Pseudobulweria becki	Beck’s Petrel	CR	Southwest Pacific: Solomon Islands	Poorly known
Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi	Fiji Petrel	CR	Southwest Pacific: Fiji	Virtually no range known
Puffinus heinrothi	Heinroth’s Shearwater	VU	Southwest Pacific: Papua New Guinea	Poorly known
Puffinus myrtae	Rapa Shearwater	CR	Southwest Pacific: French Polynesia	Poorly known
Fregetta maoriana	New Zealand Storm Petrel	CR	Southwest Pacific: New Zealand	Range is speculation
South and South Central Pacific
Pterodroma magentae	Magenta Petrel	CR	South Pacific: Chatham Islands, New Zealand and waters east	Poorly known
Pterodroma atrata	Henderson Petrel	EN	South Central Pacific: Henderson Island	Difficulty separating from P. heraldica: little known about pelagic range
Southeast Pacific
Oceanodroma  cheimomnestes	Ainley’s Storm Petrel	VU	Southeast Pacific: Guadalupe Island, Mexico	Newly described (2018), poorly known
Oceanodroma socorroensis	Townsend’s Storm Petrel	EN	Southeast Pacific: Guadalupe Island, Mexico	Newly described (2018), poorly known
Oceanites pincoyae	Pincoya Storm Petrel	DD	Southeast Pacific: Puerto Montt, Chile	Recently described (2013), poorly known
North Pacific
Puffinus bryani	Bryan’s Shearwater	CR	North Pacific: Bonin Islands, Japan, Midway Island, Hawaii, USA	Not yet confirmed at sea, and known mostly from skins and dead specimens
Puffinus bannermani	Bannerman’s Shearwater	EN	North Pacific:  Bonin Islands, Japan	Poorly known
Onychoprion aleuticus	Aleutian Tern	LC	Pacific: Alaska, Southeast Asia	Poorly known, non-breeding range has very few records
East and Southeast Asia
Thalasseus bernsteini	Chinese Crested Tern	CR	East Asia: East China Sea	Known only from two islands, at-sea range unknown
Ichthyaetus relictus	Relict Gull	VU	East Asia: East China Sea	Poorly known
Onychoprion aleuticus	Aleutian Tern	LC	Pacific: Alaska, Southeast Asia	Poorly known, non-breeding range has very few records
Atlantic
Oceanodroma monteiroi	Monteiro’s Storm Petrel	VU	Eastern Atlantic: Azores, Portugal	Poorly known
Indian Ocean
Pseudobulweria aterrima	Mascarene Petrel	CR	Western Indian Ocean: Réunion Island	Virtually no range known: known only from light strikes on Réunion

*NE= Not Evaluated