“Mr & Mrs Lime” interact at their nest site

Globally Endangered and nationally Naturally Uncommon Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi have been returning to breed at New Zealand’s Pukekura/Taiaroa Head on the mainland of South Island and egg laying has commenced.  For the sixth time, since 2015/16, the fortunes of a breeding pair will be followed through the season by ‘Royal Cam’, a 24-hour live-streaming camera operated by the Department of Conservation with the Cornell Lab for Ornithology.

Northern Royal Albatrosses female LGL (lime-green-lime colour leg bands) and male LGK (lime-green-black) or “Mr & Mrs Lime” to their avid cam followers, form an established pair that last bred in the 2018/19 season, and are now making their third attempt.   They were then also watched by the Royal Cam, raising their chick, named Karere (‘messenger’ in Te Reo Māori), which successfully fledged last year on 23 September, 243 days after hatching (the egg was laid on 6 November 2018).  The pair has now built a reasonably substantial nest which is currently hidden from the camera by long grass.

The female hatched in 2008 (2007/08 season); the male is from the following season (2008/09).  They were first-time breeders in the 2017/18 season when their egg failed, allowing them to change demi-populations and breed the next year (see the family histories of all the Royal Cam pairs here).  If breeding successfully royal albatrosses miss a year as biennial breeders.

The Royal Cam

According to Sharyn Broni a decision as to which breeding pair will be followed by the Royal Cam through the season will only be made once egg laying in the colony is completed (as of today eight eggs had been laid in the colony).   Might it be Mr and Mrs Lime in front of the camera for a second time?

Click here for the outcome of the 2019/20 breeding season.

"Relive the marathon breeding season of a Northern Royal Albatross family nesting at the Taiaroa Head Nature Reserve in 2019–20. Join male "OGK" and female "YRK" as they raise their star chick "Atawhai" from a big-billed fluffball into a giant ocean wanderer during an 8-month nesting period on New Zealand's South Island"

With thanks to Sharyn Broni, Ranger, Biodiversity, New Zealand Department of Conservation.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 November 2020

Underwater setter for a manually baited bottom longliner; photograph from the report

David Goad (Via Maris Ltd, Papamoa, New Zealand) and colleagues have reported to the Conservation Service Programme of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation on research conducted on project BCBC2018-01 Development of underwater line setters for use in bottom longline fisheries.

The report’s abstract follows:

“Two similar designs for setting manually baited bottom longlines underwater were developed and improved over the course of 13 trips to sea on three snapper longline vessels.

Both designs employed a similar concept with a towed wheel or guide used to force the mainline to a depth of 7 – 10 m, approximately 20 m behind the vessel. The setters were held at depth using a lead weight, and a hinged arm and paravane were used to provide stability and to separate the tow cable from the longline.

Matching snood clip and wheel design so that hooks were guided beside the wheel showed promise, though further work is needed to achieve this consistently and to reliably deploy floats and weights.

The setter with a guide was improved iteratively and sanma and squid baits were successfully deployed at depth. Pilchard baits were more fragile and loss rates, even before entering the setter, were unacceptably high.

Initially, gear was deployed at high mainline tension as this provided better angles of attack for the mainline entering the setter, greater mainline retention, and deeper deployment depths at speed. However, setting baits at depth with high mainline tension returned lower catch rates and higher bait return rates than gear set normally, with minimal mainline tension. Deploying gear through the setter with a guide at low mainline tension improved catch rates but produced more curvature in the mainline between the vessel and the setter, which required some trade off in speed and achievable depth.

Further work is necessary to accurately measure and control mainline tension, and to investigate optimal setter configuration to maximise deployment depth, setting speed, and catch rates at low mainline tension.

Underwater setting has the potential to allow fishers to reduce risk to birds and meet government mitigation standards by settings lines below 10 m depth within 50 m of the stern of the vessel, without substantially altering fishing operations.”

Reference:

Goad, D., Kellian, D. & Kiddie, B. 2020.  Development of underwater line setters for use in bottom longline fisheries. BC2018-01 Final Report Prepared for the Department of Conservation by Vita Maris.  [Papamoa: Vita Maris]. 41 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 November 2020

Cape Verde Shearwater at sea

Lara Cerveiro (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, University of Coimbra, Portugal) and colleagues have published in the journal Marine Environmental Research on variations in foraging trips of breeding Near Threatened Cape Verde Shearwater Calonectris edwardsii.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Pelagic seabirds exhibit plasticity in foraging characteristics in relation to oceanographic conditions.  This should be particularly relevant in tropical marine environments where food resources are naturally more unpredictable.  We studied how inter-annual variations (2013–2018) in tropical oceanographic conditions (driver of oceanic productivity) can influence the spatial and trophic ecology of Cape Verde shearwater (Calonectris edwardsii) during the breeding season.  During years of poor oceanographic conditions around the colony, birds engaged in longer trips to West Africa, showed higher spatial and behavioural consistency, and presented a wider isotopic niche.  Opposite patterns were generally found for years of good oceanographic conditions, when birds foraged more on their colony surroundings.  New foraging areas off West Africa were highlighted as relevant, especially during years of poor environmental conditions.  This study highlights the need for long-term studies to assess variation in foraging areas and foraging decisions by seabird populations.”

Reference:

Cerveira, L.R., Ramos, J.A., Rodrigues, I., Almeida, N., Araújo, P.M., dos Santos, I., Vieira, C.,  Jorge M. Pereira, J.M., Ceia, F.R., Geraldes, P., Melo, T. & Paiva, V.H. 2020.  Inter-annual changes in oceanic conditions drives spatial and trophic consistency of a tropical marine predator.  Marine Environmental Research 162.  doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105165.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 November 2020

Breeding under trees: Southern Buller's Albatrosses on North East Island, Snares Islands; from the report

David Thompson (National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand) and Paul Sagar have reported to the Conservation Service Programme of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation on research conducted on Near Threatened Southern Buller's Albatrosses Thalassarche bulleri bulleri on the sub-Antarctic Snares Islands.

The report’s executive summary follows:

“This report presents a summary of the results of counts of southern Buller’s albatrosses Thalassarche bulleri bulleri breeding at the Snares Islands|Tine Heke from 11-17 March 2020 and compares these results with those obtained using similar methods during 1969, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2014 and 2019. In addition, the results of detailed demographic studies at three study colonies are presented. The count used similar methods, and was completed at a similar time of year, to previous counts completed during 1969, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2014. The current survey of North East Island was incomplete due to adverse weather. However, the total of 5164 breeding pairs recorded along the East Coast, North Promontory, South Coast and West Coast was very similar to the 5305 breeding pairs estimated in the same areas in 2014. This result indicates that the increase in size of the breeding population over the period 1969-2002 has not continued. An additional 621 breeding pairs were estimated on Broughton Island in 2019. Demographic studies at the three study colonies on North East Island have been undertaken annually 1992-2017, and so this report incorporates some of these data in the current analysis. Estimates of the numbers of breeding pairs, made by recording the contents of each nest mound, increased in all three colonies over the numbers recorded during 2019. With the assumption that the combined total number of breeding pairs in the three study colonies was representative of North East Island as a whole then the breeding population probably peaked in 2005-2006 and has since undergone marked annual variations. A total of 245 birds previously banded in the study colonies as breeding adults of unknown age were recaptured. A further 77 breeding birds were banded in the study colonies - these are presumed to be first-time breeders. Estimates of annual survival of birds banded as breeders continued to decline, with an estimate of 0.889 in 2017. During the period 1992-2004 all chicks that survived to near-fledging in the study colonies were banded and survival rates monitored via return to the study colonies in subsequent years. This year 125 of these birds were recaptured, with birds from cohorts banded between 1999-2004 being recaptured for the first time. This demonstrates the long-term monitoring required to obtain reliable estimates of survival of such known-age birds. Of these 162 known-age birds recaptured, 13 were found breeding for the first time, and so were recorded as being recruited to the breeding population. A bird banded as a chick on Big Solander Island in 2002 was recaptured on an empty nest. One bird banded as a chick in 1972, was recaptured at 48 years of age. Fifty Global Location Sensing (GLS) tags were attached to the metal leg bands of breeding birds in the Mollymawk Bay study colony; these will be retrieved during 2021 and 2022. A GPS device was used to record latitude and longitude coordinates at waypoints around the perimeter of each of the three study colonies, and trail cameras will be installed in 2021 at nest sites determined from this years study.”

Reference:

Thompson, D. & Sagar, P. 2020.  Population studies of southern Buller's albatrosses on the Snares Islands|Tine Heke.   Prepared for Conservation Services Programme, Department of Conservation June 2020.  [Wellington]: NIWA. 24 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 02 November 2020