The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) through its 13 Parties strives to conserve albatrosses and petrels by coordinating international activities to mitigate threats to their populations.  This year ACAP's Advisory Committee declared that a conservation crisis continues to be faced by its 31 listed species, with thousands of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters dying every year as a result of fisheries operations.  To increase awareness of this crisis ACAP will inaugurate a World Albatross Day to be held annually on 19 June from next year, the date the Agreement was signed in 2004.

2019 Call for Applications to Undertake a Secondment

Applications are sought to undertake a secondment under the ACAP Secondment Programme for the purpose of building capacity within Parties, and as a means of achieving tasks within the current work programmes of the Advisory Committee (see Annex 4 AC11 Report) and Secretariat (see Annex 5 AC11 Report). Applications must be received by the Secretariat by close of business on Friday, 1 November 2019.

The Eleventh Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee (AC11) was held from 13 to 17 May 2019 in Florianópolis, Brazil.  Meetings of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group (SBWG9), and the Population and Conservation Status Working Group (PaCSWG5) preceded AC11 at the same venue.

WORLD ALBATROSS DAY, 19 JUNE 2020

 “Many albatrosses and petrels are threatened with extinction and only slight increases in the mortality of adults can rapidly reduce populations within a couple of decades.  In a world where there is a focus on the sustainability of extractive industries it behoves fishers and fishery managers to take all necessary steps to reduce the impacts of their activities on non-target species, including seabirds.” - Dr Barry Baker, Convenor, Executive Committee, Australasian Seabird Group; Scientific Councillor (By-catch), Convention on Migratory Species