Rachael Orben (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, USA) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Endangered Species Research on the post-fledging wanderings at sea of the globally Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The ability of juveniles of wide-ranging species to locate distant foraging regions can rely on innate or learned information. Reliance on innate cues could be problematic when conservation actions facilitate reintroduction. In the North Pacific, the short-tailed albatross Phoebastria albatrus is recovering from extensive harvesting, and has recently benefited from translocation efforts. Yet little is known about how naïve juveniles disperse or about individual distributions of immature short-tailed albatrosses. The primary goals of this study were to quantify the ontogeny of movement patterns and spatial distributions and compare these between naturally reared and translocated short-tailed albatrosses. We tracked 51 albatrosses for up to 5 years post-fledging: naturally reared chicks from their natal colony on Torishima, Japan, and chicks that were translocated 350 km to the southeast to Mukojima, Japan. Initial, more northerly dispersal of translocated fledglings suggests the ability to adjust to a new departure location. Fledglings’ departure paths differed from previously tracked adults departing Torishima, yet like adults, the majority of fledglings (81%) reached the Bering Sea that first summer, further supporting large-scale innate orientation abilities. Juveniles showed strong seasonal changes in distributions, traveling more in winter and occupying regions not typically used by adults (e.g. California Current, Sea of Okhotsk). As they aged, juveniles began to exhibit habitat fidelity to shelf-break regions, as anticipated from prior studies, yet continued to explore new regions with low levels of spatial fidelity. Juvenile short-tailed albatrosses explored almost the entire species range, highlighting the impressive capacity of individuals to transverse the North Pacific.”

A fledgling Short-tailed Albatross takes its first flight

Reference:

Orben, R.A., O’Connor, A.J., Suryan, R.M., Ozaki, K., Sato, F. & Deguchi, T. 2018. Ontogenetic changes in at-sea distributions of immature short-tailed albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus. Endangered Species Research 35: 23-37.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 January 2018

Playing games under a daytime sun can be no fun in a warm environment. Shifting to flood-lit night games can solve the heat problem but on the Hawaiian island of Kauai fledging Newell’s Shearwaters Puffinus newelli (globally Endangered) were attracted to the floodlights, causing groundings and mortalities.

As a consequence since 2010 night football games have not been allowed on the island during the three-month fledging season. But now shielding the stadium and park lights to shine downward only has allowed evening games to start once more. The impact of the allowed night games on the birds is being monitored.

“The new shielded lights are only part of the solution. The approved game nights fall on dates during which the moon will be full or near-full. There is lower risk that stadium lights will contribute to the number of birds dropping from the sky when the moon is big and bright.”

Newell's Shearwater, photograph by Eric Vanderwerf

Read more about the ins and outs of American football and threatened shearwaters here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 January 2018

An online article in Hakai Magazine reports on research which shows that fishing at night instead of using bird-scaring lines (BSLs) in the US Pacific longline fishery for Black Cod Anoplopoma fimbria, also known as Sablefish, is a better choice to reduce mortality of seabirds, especially the Near Threatened Black-footed Albatross Phoebastria nigripes, but also of Short-tailed Albatrosses P. albatrus, which are considered globally Vulnerable.

,

Short-tailed Albatross, photograph by Aleks Terauds

Bycatch rates of birds were 30 times lower at night than during the day, according to the research carried out with vessels using a floating longline that sinks more slowly by Amanda Gladics, Ed Melvin and others (click here), and it seems that the fishers prefer this to running the risk of entangling their longline with BSLs when day setting.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is now considering whether to adopt this new best practice as part of its regulations for the fishery. The review process is set to start in September 2018 with the objective of having a regulation in place by April 2020 (click here).

With thanks to Ed Melvin, Washington Sea Grant.

References:

Braun, A, 2017. How not to kill an albatross. Hakai Magazine, November 13, 2017.

Gladics, A.J., Melvin, E.F., Suryan, R.M., Good^, T.P., Jannot^, J.E. & Guy, T.J. 2017. Fishery-specific solutions to seabird bycatch in the U.S. West Coast sablefish fishery. Fisheries Research 196: 85-95.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 January 2018

Jorge Pereira (MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal) and colleagues have published in the journal Ocean and Coastal Management on choosing marine protected areas (MPAs) off Portugal via at-sea surveys of seabirds, including the ACAP-listed and globally Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been established across all marine environments, though their coherence and effectiveness in protecting umbrella species remains unclear. We used a multi-model ensemble forecasting approach, on 8 years of at-sea censuses of 30 seabird species to identify candidate MPAs in the Portuguese coast, prioritizing important areas for their conservation based on their occurrence and distribution. We overlapped the outputs generated by the Ensemble Ecological Niche Models (EENMs) with layers representing important environmental stressors (fishing intensity, ship density and oil pollution risk), and calculated loss in conservation value using them as cost layers. Three key marine areas were identified along the Portuguese coast: For breeders, there was a key marine area encompassing the Tagus and Sado estuaries and Berlengas archipelago; for nonbreeders and migratory species two important areas were identified in the Northern and Southern coast. The key marine area identified in the Northern coast is characterized by high productivity and biodiversity, and can be affected by oil pollution from the refineries and the intensive ship traffic in this area. Also, the area identified in the Southern coast of Portugal for migratory seabirds overlaps extensively with areas of high fishing activity. Our results show that the Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) established along the Portuguese coast protect more than a third of the areas that we prioritized for breeding species and the official MPAs near 65% of the same areas. In contrast, current IBAs and national legislation protect less than 4% of the coastal areas that we prioritize for non-breeding species in this study. Our study, combining multi-species distribution with environmental constraints induced by human activities, allowed us to assess the coherence of the Portuguese marine planning and identify candidate areas to join the Portuguese network of marine protected areas. Our results, employing data from annual at-sea surveys together with the human stressors known to affect the Portuguese coast, proved to be an extremely useful strategy to identify spatial conservation areas along the Portuguese coast as well as to access the adequacy and consistency of those areas. Despite the constraints of this demanding approach, we are confident that our study provides a reliable strategy to inform marine conservation efforts and management planning in similar coastal environments elsewhere, characterized by strong coastal upwelling movements.”

Balearic Shearwater at sea

With thanks to Susan Mvungi, Niven Librarian, FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town.

Reference:

Pereira, J.M., Krüger, L., Oliveira, N., Meirinho, A., Silva, A., Ramos, J.A. & Paiva, V.H. 2017. Using a multi-model ensemble forecasting approach to identify key marine protected areas for seabirds in the Portuguese coast. Ocean and Coastal Management 153: 98-107.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 January 2018