Wisdom (right) displays with another Laysan Albatross, 18 March 2024

Wisdom, a Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge’s Sand Island, is the world’s oldest known wild bird.  Now into her 70s, she was sighted wearing her now well-known plastic leg band red Z333 on 18 March 2024, engaging in mutual displays with other Laysan Albatrosses at her former nest site.

“Wisdom was previously last sighted in January 2024 in search of a new mate after her former mate did not return during the early winter 2023 breeding season.  It is extremely unlikely that she will find that one and only “mature” mate so late in the 2024 nesting season but it is not for lack of trying! She truly is one of the grandest of grandmothers in the animal kingdom.”

On 24 and 25 December 2023 Wisdom was seen displaying with an unbanded male, she was first recorded for the 2023/24 breeding season on 03 December last year.  Her last partner, named Akeakamai, has not been seen this and in the two previous seasons and is likely to be no longer alive (click here).  Let’s hope she can find a new mate in the 2024/25 season and breeds once more.

Wisdom (centre) displays with three other Laysan Albatrosses, 18 March 2024
Photographs by Nick Minnich, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Volunteer

View Wisdom's latest photo shoot by Nick Minnich.  News from the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.  Access the many previous posts about Wisdom  in ACAP Latest News from here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 26 March 2024

New Zealand’s Near Threatened Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri and the Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus have been chosen as the featured species for 2024’s World Albatross Day celebrations. Both species appear in this year's poster by Geoffry Tyler, as does the EndangeredGrey-headed Albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement is excited to present the poster for this year’s World Albatross Day under the theme, “Marine Protected Areas: Safeguarding our Oceans”. 

The WAD2024 poster was created by South African born Graphic Designer and long-time ACAP collaborator, Geoff Tyler, who also designed ACAP’s World Albatross Day logo, including this year’s commemorative logo marking the Agreement’s 20^th year since coming into force.  

The ocean supports an abundance of life and ecosystems, and Geoff’s design beautifully captures the vital connection between albatrosses and the ocean whilst also highlighting the main threat to these incredible birds – fisheries. 

MPAs can assist in improving the conservation status of albatrosses by safeguarding their breeding habitats, critical areas along their migration routes, and by regulating activities like fishing within these protected zones.

Currently, MPAs can only be established by Governments within their own waters, however, with the landmark signature of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction or 'BBNJ treaty', by 84 nations, their creation in waters commonly known as the High Seas will also become possible. 

New Zealand’s Near Threatened Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri and the Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus have been chosen as the featured species for 2024’s World Albatross Day celebrations. Both species appear in this year's poster, as does the Endangered Grey-headed Albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma.

Please help spread the word about this year’s World Albatross Day and share our WAD2024 poster to amplify awareness and inspire action for the conservation of these impressive seabirds and the vast ocean they traverse.

The poster is available in the three official ACAP languages of English, French and Spanish, as well as in Japanese to mark the fact that the majority of the Short-tailed Albatrosses, one of the featured albatrosses for WAD2024, breeds on Japan’s Torishima.

The WAD2024 posters and logos can be freely downloaded at a high resolution to allow for printing at the ACAP website, here.  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.

ACAP would like to thank, Michelle Risi, Enzo M. Reyes, Ross Wheeler, Michelle Jones and John Klavitter for the use of their photographs in this year’s WAD2024 poster. 

25 March 2024

A Shy Albatross on Australia's Albatross Island; photograph by Rachael Alderman

Claire Mason (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Australia) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Ecology and Evolution an analysis of the foraging behaviour of 96 shy albatrosses on Australia’s Albatross Island.

The open-access paper is part of a themed issue “How do marine heatwaves impact seabirds?” along with 12 other publications.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Quantifying the intra- and interindividual variation that exists within a population can provide meaningful insights into a population's vulnerability and response to rapid environmental change. We characterise the foraging behaviour of 308 trips taken by 96 shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta) from Albatross Island across seven consecutive years. At a population level, incubating shy albatross exploited a consistent area within ca. 500 km radius of their breeding colony. During half of the trips, individuals utilised the closest shelf break to the west of the colony, where upwelling events have been reported. The other half of the trips were exclusively within the neritic zone, utilising a variety of locations within the Bass Strait. Furthermore, we found evidence of individual consistency to geographic locations, with subsequent trips by an individual more similar than random trips from all individuals in our data, both within and between years (G-test, p < .05). Between-individual variation in foraging behaviour was not meaningfully explained by age (linear regression, p > .05) or sex (t-test, p > .05) for any metric, suggesting that other intrinsic individual factors are accounting for between-individual variation in foraging trips. A localised foraging distribution is unusual for albatross, which, combined with high variation in space use between individuals demonstrated here, suggests that this species is accessing adequate resources near the colony. Overall, these findings suggest that incubating shy albatross from Albatross Island exhibit tendencies of a generalist population comprised of uniquely specialised individuals. These results suggest that this species is operating below its biological capacity in this fast-warming area and provide a baseline from which to assess future change.”

Reference:

Mason, C., Hobday, A. J., Lea, M.-A., &  Alderman, R. (2023).  Individual consistency in the localised foraging behaviour of shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta). Ecology and Evolution, 13, e10644. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10644

22 March 2024

Ten papers about albatrosses were presented to the Pacific Seabird Group’s 51st Annual Meeting, with the theme “Faces of Seabird Conservation”, held last month in Seattle, Washington, United States of America,.  Their titles and authors follow.  Go to the Book of Abstracts to learn more.

Predicting albatross bycatch hotspots across the north Pacific Ocean
Thomas Clay, Scott Shaffer, Josh Adams, David Anderson, Steven Bograd, Jonathan Felis, Yuliana Bedolla Guzmán, Elliott Hazen, Michelle Hester, David Hyrenbach, Julio César Hernández Montoya, Frederick Dallas Jordan, Federico Méndez Sánchez, Bungo Nishizawa, Rachael Orben, Kiyoaki Ozaki, Evaristo Rojas-Mayoral, Fumio Sato, Robert Suryan, Jean-Baptiste Thiebot, Lesley Thorne, Heather Welch, Lindsay Young & Gemma Carroll

Multiple observer comparison of satellite-based counts of the endangered Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus)
Risa Dickson, Jane Dolliver, Jennifer Spegon, Kristopher Pacheco & Rachael Orben

Analysis of Laysan Albatross diets from two colonies on Oahu, Hawaii
Philip Duchild, Nina Karnovsky & Lindsay Young

Sex-related variation in the distribution and relation with longline fisheries of Black-footed Albatrosses
Haruka Hayashi, Bungo Nishizawa, Naoki Tomita & Daisuke Ochi

Global prevalence of setting longlines at dawn highlights bycatch risk for threatened albatross
David Kroodsma, Joanna Turner, Cian Luck, Tim Hochberg, Nathan Mille, Philip Augustyn & Stephanie Prince

A potential tracking research of senkaku-type Short-tailed Albatross in Taiwan
Yun-Xuan Lin, Scott Shaffer, Rachael Orben, Hsiao-Wei Yuan, Chung-Hang Hung, Han-Po Chang & An Chou

History and significance of albatross banding efforts at Midway Atoll, 1936-2023
Jonathan Plissner, Beth Flint & Jennifer McKay

Identifying “in situ” Northern Buller’s Albatross (Thalassarche bulleri platei) during the artisanal longline fishery in offshore waters of southern Perú
Javier Quiñones, Christopher Robertson & Carlos Zavalaga

Detailed species composition, occurrence and behaviour of seabirds species during the fishing operation of artisanal longline fisheries in southern Peru, and strategies to prevent seabird bycatch in offshore waters of southern Peru
Javier Quiñones, Cynthia Romero, Johannes Fischer & Igor Debski

Status of social attraction and translocation of 4 seabird species on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i
Eric VanderWerf, Robby Kohley Erika Dittmar, Leilani Fowlke & Kelly Goodale

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 14 March 2024