ACAP Latest News

Read about recent developments and findings in procellariiform science and conservation relevant to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels in ACAP Latest News.

ACAP releases a Species Infographic for the Amsterdam Albatross, the 19th in the series

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The latest ACAP Species Infographic, the 19th to be produced in the 31-species series, is for the Endangered Amsterdam Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis.  Along with the equally Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche carteri it has been chosen as one of the “feature species” for this year’s World Albatross Day on 19 June, with its theme of “Effects of Disease


“Connection”, watercolour of three Amsterdam Albatrosses by Flavia Barreto of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature for ABUN Project 49, after a photograph by Dominique Filippi

As for all previous infographics it is also being produced in the official ACAP languages of French and Spanish. These versions will be released soon.

Amsterdam Albatrosses Dominique Filippi
Amsterdam Albatrosses interact in France’s Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean, photograph by Dominique Filippi

The ACAP Species Infographic series has been designed to help inform the public, including school learners, of the threats faced by albatrosses and petrels and what is being and can be done to combat them.  They serve to complement the more detailed and referenced ACAP Species Assessments, the concise and illustrated ACAP Species Summaries and the ACAP Photo Essay series.  English and Portuguese language versions of the infographics produced to date are available to download here.  French and Spanish versions can be found in their respective language menus for the website under Infographies sur les espèces and Infographía sobres las especies.

The 19 infographics produced to date may be freely downloaded at a high resolution to allow for printing professionally in two poster sizes (approximately A2 and A3). .Please note they are only being made available for personal use or when engaging in activities that will aid in drawing attention to the conservation crisis faced by the world’s albatrosses and petrels – when ACAP will be pleased to receive a mention.  They should not be used for personal gain.

The ACAP Species Infographics are being created by Thai illustrator Namasri ‘Namo’ Niumim from Bangkok.  Namo is a graduate of the School of Architecture and Design, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design.

The ACAP Species Infographic for the Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross is now in production.

With grateful thanks to Pep Arcos and Karine Delord for their help editing Spanish and French translations, respectively.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 28 April 2025

A White-chinned Petrel scavenges on a dolphin carcass

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(A) Adult White-chinned Petrel near a dead Franciscana Dolphin; (B) detail of the dolphin; (C) detail of possible pecking marks; and (D) detail of exposed flesh, likely the area where the White-chinned Petrel was pecking (from the publication)

Fabio Schunck (Comitê Brasileiro de Registros Ornitológicos, São Paulo, Brazil) and colleagues have published in the open-access journal Marine Ornithology on an unusual observation of a scavenging White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis is an opportunistic forager that often follows fishing boats to feed upon scraps or escaped/discarded fish.  Although its diet in non-breeding areas is not well understood, studies of stomach contents indicate that its diet consists of fish, crustaceans, and squid.  In June 2024, during a pelagic birding trip off the coast of Santa Catarina State, Brazil, a White-chinned Petrel was spotted feeding on the floating carcass of a Franciscana Dolphin Pontoporia blainvillei.  This behavior has not been previously documented in the literature, online citizen science platforms, or by personal observation.  We believe this to be an uncommon, opportunistic feeding strategy for this petrel species.”

Reference:

Schunck, F., Souza, R., Donadio, D.N., Correa, L., Bicudo, R., Souza, M.O., Silva, P.G.C., Dias, E., Leal, E. & Barata, F. 2025.  White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis feeding on a dead dolphin.  Marine Ornithology 53: 185-187.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 25 April 2025

Personal note:  My 33-year-old paper gets cited in a journal that I founded and then was editing.

Cooper, J., Fourie, A. & Klages, N.T.W. 1992.  The diet of the White chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis at sub-Antarctic Marion Island.  Marine Ornithology 20: 17-24.

The Mouse-Free Marion Project heads to the island to conduct more research

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The MFM takeover team from left: Otto Whitehead, Keith Springer, Roelf Daling, Josh Kemp and Vonica Perold before sailing to Marion Island on 18 April 2025

Robyn Adams, Mouse-Free Marion Project Communications Officer and Project Assistant writes in the news section on the project’s website.

“Since 2022, the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project has maintained a research presence on Marion Island.  Each year, field assistants are deployed to conduct critical research that informs the planning of the operation to restore the island’s degraded ecosystem by eradicating invasive mice.  This year is no exception and this month we once again set sail for Marion Island.

The annual Marion Island relief voyage in April will see the S.A. Agulhas II, South Africa’s Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research and support vessel, travel to the island to relieve the current overwintering personnel and resupply those at the research base with food, fuel and provisions to sustain them for the year they will spend on the island.

Each year, the MFM Project deploys new research personnel.  The 2025/26 team is Vonica Perold and Roelf Daling, who will be relieving Monique van Bers after her year-long stint on Marion Island.  Vonica and Roelf will form part of the M82 overwintering team and join the larger MFM Project team participating in the takeover voyage.

Accompanying them on the month-long voyage are Keith Springer (MFM Project Operations Manager) and Josh Kemp, who will be overseeing the research activities planned for the takeover period.  After closely examining possible reasons for two recent failed eradications, this research will include new field trials specifically designed to investigate key parameters relating to bait and mice, further refining the approach to eradication planning.  Filmmaker and scientist Otto Whitehead will also be part of the MFM Project team for the voyage, and will assist with the field work, document activities and help raise awareness for the project.

During the 2025/2026 period, Vonica and Roelf will continue various monitoring initiatives that have been established to inform the planning of the baiting operation and support long-term monitoring of the ecological outcomes.  Addressing key knowledge gaps through well-designed field trials plays a critical role in ensuring the success of the eradication operation.” [edited].

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Read more about the 2025 takeover and the new MFM Project field team in the latest issue (No. 13, April 2025) of the MFM Quarterly Newsletter.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 24 April 2025

A cause for concern: White-chinned Petrels overlap year-round with longline and trawl fisheries

Lea Finke White chinned Petrel watercolour Kirk Zufelt
White-chinned Petrel in flight, watercolour by Lea Finke of Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature for ACAP, after a photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Kalinka Rexer-Huber (Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Ecological Applications on the overlap of  globally Vulnerable White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis with longline and trawl fisheries in the Southern Oceaan.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Although fisheries bycatch is the greatest threat to many migratory marine megafauna, it remains unclear how population exposure to bycatch varies across the global range of threatened species. Such assessments across multiple populations are crucial for understanding variation in impacts and for identifying the management bodies responsible for reducing bycatch.  Here, we combine extensive biologging data from white-chinned petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) populations (representing >98% of their global breeding population) with pelagic and demersal longline and trawl fishing effort to map the global distribution and fisheries-overlap hotspots for the most bycaught seabird in the Southern Hemisphere.  We tracked the year-round movements of 132 adults in 2006–2018 and examined spatial overlap among seven populations comprising three genetically distinct groupings (metapopulations).  Foraging areas during the nonbreeding season were more concentrated than during breeding, with birds from all populations migrating to continental shelf or upwelling zones, but with low spatial overlap among metapopulations.  Fisheries overlap differed more among than within metapopulations, underlining that these should be considered separate management units.  Overlap with pelagic longline fisheries was greatest for Indian Ocean populations, and from the fleets of South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, and Spain, off southern Africa and in the High Seas.  Overlap with demersal longline and trawl fisheries was greatest for Indian and Atlantic Ocean populations, within the Exclusive Economic Zones of South Africa, Namibia, and Argentina, and with the South Korean demersal longline fleet in the High Seas.  The high overlap with South Korean longliners in the southwest Atlantic Ocean is of particular concern as demersal fishing in this region is not covered by any Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO).  We also identified fisheries-overlap hotspots within RFMOs where there are no seabird-bycatch mitigation requirements (1.5%–53.1% of total overlap within the area of competence of each RFMO), or where current mitigation regulations need to be strengthened.  Our recommendations are that management bodies target the high-priority fisheries we have identified for improved bycatch monitoring, mandatory best-practice bycatch mitigation, and close monitoring of compliance, given the conservation concerns for white-chinned petrels and other threatened seabirds.”

With thanks to Richard Phillips, British Antarctic Survey.

Reference:

Rexer-Huber, K.,  Clay, T.A., Catry, P., Debski, I., Parker, G., Ramos R., Robertson, B.C.,  Ryan, P.G., Sagar, P.M., Stanworth, A., Thompson, D.R., Tuck G,N., Weimerskirch, H. & Phillips, R.A. 2025.  Metapopulation distribution shapes year-round overlap with fisheries for a circumpolar seabird.  Ecological Applications doi.org/10.1002/eap.70019.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 23 April 2025

Iceberg A23a gets visited by cruise ships soon after its grounding in the South Atlantic

LMSA iceberg Holly Parsons
A Light-mantled Albatross shows the impressive above-water height of A23a, photograph by Holly Parsons

A23a, the world’s largest iceberg, ran aground approximately 80 km to the west of South Georgia/Islas Georgias del Sur* in the South Atlantic on 01 March 2025.  The c. 3200 square kilometre tabular berg calved from the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea in 1986.  Not surprisingly its presence so close to the island quickly attracted the interest of Antarctic cruise ships and their passengers, as described in the following two accounts.

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Video of A23a on 15 March 2025 by Cathi Crabtree

Photographer Eric Guth  aboard the cruise ship National Geographic Endurance writes on Instagram of noticing thousands of seabirds from albatrosses to prions alongside the estimated 187-m deep grounded iceberg, after spending close to two hours in its vicinity on 07 March 2025 “while waves, wind and heavy seas pounded its windward side.  With so much extent below the water’s surface this submerged wall of ice has become a pump for nutrients.  As the prevailing westerlies and associated currents ramp up the underside of the berg they bring nutrients to the surface while at the same time speeding up the melt process which releases limiting minerals like iron into the ocean.  This further fuels the organisms the associated wildlife are feeding on.”

White chinned Petrel Iiceberg Holly Parsons
A White-chinned Petrel flies along the edge of the grounded iceberg, photograph by Holly Parsons

A week later on 15 March, Holly Parsons of Albatross Lovers sailed alongside the iceberg as a passenger on the cruise ship Le Boréal, taking photographs and noting the presence of Grey-headed Albatrosses Thalassarche chrysostoma , Light-mantled Albatrosses Phoebetria palpebrata and White-chinned Petrels, Procellaria equinoctialis, among prions Pachyptila sp. and other seabirds.

GHA near iceberg Holly Parsons
A Grey-headed Albatross close to iceberg A23a, photograph by Holly Parsons

With thanks to Holly Parsons.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 22 April 2025

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

The Agreement on the
Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks to conserve listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by coordinating international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations.

About ACAP

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Email: secretariat@acap.aq
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