The ground count is underway among incubating Laysan Albatrosses on Midway Atoll

The Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge reports on its Facebook page on testing drone technology during the recently completed annual albatross count on Midway Atoll.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service is also happy to report a drone team came out this year in an effort to help reduce the cost and time to conduct future counts.  While the drone did an aerial count, the bird counters did a complete on-the-ground count of all nesting albatross species within Kuaihelani (Midway Atoll ). Additionally, ground transects were set up for comparison in different habitat types.  While the analysis is still on-going, the drone has already proved remarkably successful.  Although the drone is not reliable at sighting nesting birds in the non-native ironwood forests on Sand Island it has shown success in the heavy shrub areas.”

Supervisory Biologist Jon Plissner was able to observe the drone's amazing avoidance capabilities.  "The day I was out there over hundreds of Manu-o-Kū or White Terns started mobbing the drone, which was apparently the most they [the drone team] observed the entire time.  Also a flock of Cattle Egrets came and started swarming it and you could see the drones hesitating and avoiding individuals as the birds approached within a few meters.  There was no collision, no incidents and no disturbance of birds on the ground whatsoever.  The trials seemed successful but we still would like to get a couple of more years in so that is where the funding the count is going to be critical."

The bird counters celebrate after finishing the 2025 count on Midway Atoll’s Eastern Island, photographs from the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

ACAP Latest News will report of the 2024/25 season’s ground counts once the final results are released.  It seems to have been good year for Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis, but less so for Black-footed Albatrosses P. nigripes.  “The most exciting news is this year's total for Mōlī nests will be the second highest number recorded since the annual nest count began in 1992!  For Ka'upu or Black-footed Albatross, the news is not as encouraging with the second lowest nest count reported since 2005.”

Read an earlier ACAP Latest News article on the recent count here.

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

Antipodean Albatross photograph by David Tipling

This year’s Global Birdfair will be held at Lydon Top, Rutland, UK over 11-13 July.  The Global Birdfairs commenced in 2022, following a long run of annual British Birdwatching Fairs in Rutland that stated in 1989 and ended due to COVID19 in 2020.  The 2025 fair will adopt as its conservation project “Safeguarding Ocean Species” and will look once again at the incidental mortality (bycatch) of albatrosses and petrels caused by longline fisheries.  This follows from the 2000 British Birdwatching Fair, which marked the commencement of BirdLife International’s then Seabird Conservation Programme, with its theme of “Keeping Albatrosses off the Hook”,

Antipodean Albatross by ABUN artist Lea Finke for the inaugural World Albatross Day, 19 June 2020, after a photograph by Kirk Zufelt

The Global Birdfair 2025’s edited media release follows:

“We are excited to announce the Global Birdfair 2025 Conservation Project, Safeguarding Ocean Species.  This important project concentrates on the South Pacific region and gives opportunities to create awareness on a Global scale, alongside BirdLife International’s Seabird and Marine Programme Conservation initiatives.  Global longline fisheries bycatch poses the single greatest threat to many albatross and petrel species, including the Endangered Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis, this year’s flagship bird.

Among other species affected are Flesh-footed Ardenna carneipes, Buller’s A. bulleri, Sooty A. grisea and Short-tailed A. tenuirostris Shearwaters, plus other sub-Antarctic visitors to the region: giant petrels Macronectes spp., Grey Petrels Procellaria cinerea and smaller albatross species.

We hope that Safeguarding Ocean Species addresses critical gaps in awareness and compliance as follows:

Species: Ensures the adoption of best-practice seabird bycatch migration measures on longline fishing vessels, directly reducing interactions with highly threatened species like the Antipodean Albatross.

Ocean Systems: Contributes to more sustainable fisheries and healthier marine ecosystems, creating resilience against climate change and improving the long-term sustainability of ocean resources.

Society: Strengthens local livelihoods by employing a local Port-based Outreach officer and coordinator, while empowering women through training and paid opportunities to produce tori lines for vessels.

The project is closely aligned with the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP).  Additionally, the project supports the 2050 Blue Pacific Strategy by advancing sustainable fisheries management and promoting biodiversity conservation as part of a broader vision for resilient Pacific ecosystems. Working together, we all need to address the critical state of the World’s Oceans as habitats.”

The globally Endangered  and Nationally Critical Antipodean Albatross, endemic to New Zealand,  has been identified as a Species of Special Concern by ACAP. The Species Infographic for the bird is freely available foi downloading as posters in three languages here,

Ticket sales for Global Birdfair 2025 open in February. Watch a short video on this year's fair here

With thanks to Tim Appleton MBE, Global Birdfair Co-organizer.

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

A Tristan Albatross (a species considered in the publication) pair on Gough Island by ABUN artist Virginia Potter Vredeveld for World Albatross Day, 19 June 2020, after a photograph by Michelle Risi

James Bell (Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Biological Conservation on assessing incidental mortality risk for four procellariiform species in the South Atlantic.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Incidental mortality (bycatch) of seabirds in pelagic longline fisheries remains a major threat to many populations.   The design and implementation of technical innovations aimed at reducing seabird bycatch rates have long been a focus of research. However, it has historically been difficult to extrapolate the efficacy of a particular mitigation measure to the scale of seabird populations or oceanic basins. Here, we develop an ecological risk assessment for five populations of threatened albatross and petrel species that forage in the south Atlantic Ocean. Since seabird bycatch rates are likely under-reported to fisheries regulatory bodies, we adopted a risk-based approach to predict differences in bycatch rates between different combinations and specifications of mitigation measures, comparing those currently specified by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) against best practice guidelines recommended by the Seabird Bycatch Working Group of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP). We conclude that updating existing mitigation measure specifications for pelagic longlining in the South Atlantic to reflect current best practice guidelines would potentially reduce seabird mortality by 41–86 %, compared to use of any two of the three options by vessels. Simultaneous application of all three mitigation measures recommended as current ACAP best practice was predicted to reduce seabird mortality by 72–93 % and therefore should be considered by ICCAT as the most appropriate management measure for seabirds until further data are available to undertake more rigorous analyses.”

With thanks to Richard Phillips.

Reference:

Bell, J.B., Fischer, J.H., Carneiro, A.P.B., Griffiths, S., Bielli, A., Jiménez, S., Oppel, S., Phillips, R.A., Wade, H.M., Yates, O. & Reeves, S.A. 2025.  Evaluating the effectiveness of seabird bycatch mitigation measures for pelagic longlines in the South Atlantic.  Biological Conservation 302. 110981.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 21 January 2025

The USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has designated the Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary, home of the vast majority of the world’s Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Alvatrosses, with the publication of a final rule on 16 January 2025.  Following the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, after the final rule for sanctuary designation is published, sanctuary designation will take effect following 45 days of continuous session of the U.S. Congress.  The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and its expansion out to 200 nautical mile, were established under the Antiquities Act of 1906 through, respectively, Presidential Proclamations in 2006; 2007 and 2016.

A Laysan Albatross flies over Midway Atoll, photograph by Eric VanderWerf

“NOAA is designating Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary (sanctuary) to protect nationally significant biological, cultural, and historical resources and to manage this special place as part of the National Marine Sanctuary System. The sanctuary consists of an area of approximately 582,570 square statute miles (439,910 square nautical miles) of Pacific Ocean waters surrounding the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the submerged lands thereunder. NOAA is establishing the terms of designation for the sanctuary and the regulations to implement the national marine sanctuary designation. NOAA has also published a final environmental impact statement (final EIS) in coordination with the State of Hawai'i, final management plan, and Record of Decision” (click here).

A brooding Black-footed Albatross on Midway Atoll, photograph by Wieteke Holthuijzen

Copies of the final environmental impact statement (EIS) and management plan described in this rule and the record of decision (ROD) are available here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 20 January 2025