This wounded Wandering Albatross chick did not survive nocturnal attacks by introduced House Mice on Marion Island, photograph by Michelle Risi, June 2023

The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross- and petrel-killing House Mice on sub-Antarctic Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean.  The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.  Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate.  An important part of the current planning stage is to raise the necessary funds for what will be a massive operation on a 30 000-hectare island.

Round the peninsula: the route for the Cape Town Cycle Tour

On Sunday 9 March, 31 members of the Mouse-Free Marion Cycling Team will set off  in their Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project cycling jerseys to ride 109 km around the iconic Cape Peninsula.  It will be the 47th running of the Cape Town Cycle Tour, the world’s largest timed cycling event.  Three members of the MFM Project Team will e cycling with the others on Sunday, with no less than 36 previous Cape Town Cycle Tours completed between them.  It is planned to separate at the start into ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ groups to ensure everyone can expect an enjoyable ride within their capabilities.  Members of the team come roughly equally from the South African Provinces of Gauteng and the Western Cape and have been training for the event with social rides and races over the last several months. Not all have yet met each other, so the ride will also be a social event with a planned gathering afterwards.

Last group training ride in the Western Cape before the big event.  Mouse-Free Marion Cycling Team members John Cooper, Erica Leppan, Katta Ludynia and Jeremy George on the decent from Chapman’s Peak into Hout Bay on the Cape Town Cycle Tour route

Wearing MFM ‘colours’, the team’s aim will be to raise awareness for the MFM Project along the always well-spectated route, with occasional stops at scenic points for group photographs.  Equally important, the team members will attempt to raise a total of R109 000 (R1000 for every kilometre cycled), equivalent to sponsoring 109 hectares, in support of the project.  To this end team members are approaching their friends, colleagues and relatives to sponsor them an amount for each kilometre they ride.  Readers can also sponsor with any multiple of R109 or a lump sum via the team’s GivenGain appeal.  Marion Island’s beleaguered albatrosses will thank you!

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 04 March 2025

An Argentinian side trawler pulls its net, photograph by Leo Tamini

Agustina Iwan (Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras, Mar del Plata, Argentina) and colleagues have published in the journal Society & Natural Resources on using interviews to identify barriers for the take up of mitigation measures in Argentina’s offshore demersal trawl fleet.  The senior author took up an ACAP Secondment in 2023 that allowed her to travel and conduct research in Queensland and Tasmania, Australia towards this publication for five months in 2023.

Illustration from the publication

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Reducing fisheries bycatch is a global challenge, with social factors playing a significant role in the adoption of mitigation measures (MMs). This study investigates these factors within Argentina’s offshore commercial bottom trawl fleet, where research remains limited. Through a qualitative approach, 29 interviews with key stakeholders were conducted to explore perceptions of bycatch and MMs.  Analysis revealed four main barriers to MMs uptake: perceptions of cumbersomeness, ineffectiveness, lack of an adequate control system, and Argentine cultural influences. Participants emphasized the need for improved governance strategies, collaboration among stakeholders, and tailored educational programs to enhance MMs uptake.  Additionally, effective communication, trust-building, and incentives emerged as essential elements for fostering the use of MMs.”

With thanks to Agustina Iwan.

Reference:

Iwan, A., Favero, M., Van Putten, I.E., Arqueros Mejica, M.S., Bergseth, B.J., Lau, J.D.  & Copello, S. 2025: Reducing bycatch in offshore commercial fisheries: stakeholder perspectives on mitigation measures.  Society & Natural Resources.1080/08941920.2025.2463060.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 03 March 2025

An Amsterdam Albatross broods its chick on Amsterdam Island, photograph by Jérémy Dechartre

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement has adopted its theme of "Effects of Disease" for this year's World Albatross Day on 19 June.  As part of the build up to WAD2025, ACAP will hold its very first photography competition.  The two albatrosses to be featured in the competition are the Endangered Amsterdam Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis, endemic to France’s Amsterdam Island, and the Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche carteri, that breeds on several islands in the southern Indian Ocean.  Both species are at risk to avian cholera caused by Pasteurella multocida on Amsterdam Island.

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross at sea near Amsterdam Island, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Photographers are encouraged to submit up to two photographs for each species for the competition to the ACAP Emeritus Information Officer at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. up until 30 April.  Photos should be sent as JPGs of at least 2.5 mb and be accompanied by the photographer’s name, species, locality and date.  A title or a brief description can also be submitted if so wished.

During May the submitted photos will be reviewed by three independent judges, who will make their first, second and third choices for each species in two separate categories of pictures taken on land and at sea.  Their scorings will then be totalled via a points system to identify the four winners in each of the two categories for the two species.  These will then be made into four downloadable posters available for personal use that will be released during “WADWEEK”, that comes immediately before World Albatross Day on 19 June.

The three persons chosen to judge the competition are Isabelle Beaudoin of Peaks to Petrels Photography, a seabird and habitat restoration ecologist currently working on Kure Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Holly Parsons, Administrator of the Albatross Lovers Facebook page, and Michelle Risi, Field Biologist with the Royal Society for the Protection of Bird’s Gough Island Restoration Programme - and currently based on Gough.

All photographs are submitted with the understanding ACAP may use them on its website and in its social media postings in the cause of albatross conservation.

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

A feral cat feeds on the body of a White-capped Albatross chick close to fledging on Auckland Island, photograph by Stephen Bradley

The international conservation initiative, Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC), led by Island Conservation, Re:wild, and UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has added three of New Zealand’s most ecologically rich islands into its ambitious effort to restore and rewild 40 globally significant island-ocean ecosystems by 2030.  The Department of Conservation and Chatham Islands Landscape Restoration Trust have joined the IOCC to boost conservation efforts on sub-Antarctic Auckland Island, Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands.  The addition of these three projects brings the total number of committed island-ocean ecosystems to 20 (click here).

Efforts are now being made to raise the necessary funds for the three restoration efforts.  Read more about the New Zealand island eradication plans here.

Scalped!  A Grey-headed Albatross chick after nocturnal attacks by mice on Marion Island, photograph by Ben Dilley

Previously BirdLife South Africa joined the IOCC by listing sub-Antarctic Marion Island, where the Mouse-Free Marion Project is working towards eradicating its albatross- and petrel-killing House Mice. Read more about Marion Island’s listing with the IOCC here and here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 27 February 2025