Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

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.

Another year of ACAP Latest News with 261 postings: grateful thanks are due

It's the last day of the year and so time for some thank-yous.

ACAP Latest News has continued its policy of posting one news item each weekday during 2018, a total of 261. Subjects have ranged widely, but all are centred on some aspect of the biology and conservation of procellariform seabirds, especially of the 31 species of albatrosses and petrels listed within the Agreement.

2018’s postings can be searched by keyword. For example, the Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena, endemic to the UK’s Tristan da Cunha islands in the South Atlantic, garners 13 hits for the year. All the news items posted to ALN going back around a decade – well over 3000 of them - are key-word searchable: there are no less than 245 that mention the Tristan Albatross.

A Tristan Albatross stands over its egg on Inaccessible Island in February 2011, photograph by Lourens Malan

All ALN items are posted to ACAP’s Facebook page, currently with 3787 friends. The Facebook page also carries selected postings on non-ACAP listed procellariiform seabirds, including gadfly petrels, shearwaters, diving petrels and storm petrels, as well as on conservation news of the listed birds' breeding localities.

Keeping up regular postings is only possible with the willing help of correspondents who alert ACAP of news, including of scientific publications in the peer-reviewed literature and of reports produced by Party governments and NGOs, as well as supply photographs. Grateful thanks are extended to all such correspondents. Especial thanks must go to the following who have regularly supplied information or helped in other material ways during the course of 2018:

Barry Baker, Latitude 42 Environmental Consultants, Australia; Susan Mvungi, Niven Library, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Ria Olivier, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, Stellenbosch University; Hob Osterlund, Kaua’i Albatross Network, Hawaii, USA; and Richard Phillips, British Antarctic Survey.

On a more personal note I thank past and present members of the ACAP Secretariat for their continued support during 2018 in my role as honorary Information Officer for the Agreement: Christine Bogle, Executive Secretary; Marco Favero, past Executive Secretary and Wiesława Misiak, Science Officer.

See you all next year!

ACAP’s Information Officer also rides a bike!

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 31 December 2018

A grand day out! Translocating Laysan Albatross eggs on Kauai for another season

Hands-on conservation of globally Near Threatened Laysan Albatrosses or mōlī Phoebastria immutabilis is continuing on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Recently, 16 fertile mōlī eggs were removed from incubating birds breeding within the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands (PMRF) and given to birds deemed to have infertile eggs breeding elsewhere on the island on private properties along the north shore.

Fertility was first checked by “candling” the eggs in the field and then exchanges were made “in less than 30 seconds”.

An egg gets candled in the field by Pacific Rim Conservation biologists

The black cloth acts as “a portable darkroom where he can shine a flashlight into the egg. A fertile egg will have an embryo and a “spider” of blood vessels.”

The PMRF eggs are removed as part of an effort to reduce recruitment to the locality to reduce the chances of bird strikes with aeroplanes. The eggs are often given to female-female pairs whose own eggs are usually infertile.

The egg translocation this year was a team effort among Pacific Missile Range Facility, Pacific Rim Conservation, Kaua’i Albatross Network and private property owners.

Watch a video of a 2018 egg exchange.

Read ACAP Latest News postings about the translocation efforts on Kauai over past years.

The 2018 translocation team. The Hawaiian Shaka hand gesture is used as a greeting gesture or to express thanks

Photographs by Hob Osterlund

With thanks to Hob Osterlund, Kaua’i Albatross Network.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 December 2018

Eleventh Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee, Florianópolis, Brazil, May 2019: Second Circular available

The Eleventh Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee (AC11) will be held from Monday 13 to Friday 17 May 2019, in the Jurerê Internacional Il Campanario Hotel, Florianópolis, Brazil. Meetings of the committee’s Seabird Bycatch Working Group and the Population and Conservation Status Working Group will precede AC11 at the same venue (SBWG9 from Monday 6 to Wednesday 8 May, and PaCSWG5 from Thursday 9 to Friday 10 May). A Heads of Delegation meeting will be convened on Sunday 12 May 2019 in the late afternoon/ evening.

The Jurerê Internacional Il Campanario Hotel in Florianópolis

Immediately prior to the Seabird Bycatch Working Group meeting it is planned to hold a one-day workshop on Sunday 5 May to discuss and review ACAP’s engagement strategy with Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs). More details of this workshop will be provided in a subsequent meeting circular.

The first Circular gave information on meeting location and dates, submission of documents and applications from Observers. The latest Circular (No. 2) gives information on making hotel reservations, completing registration forms and provides a draft agenda for the Advisory Committee meeting. Details are also given on templates to be used when submitting meeting documents to the Secretariat.

Read the two meeting circulars in English, French or Spanish.

Christine Bogle, Executive Secretary & Nathan Walker, Chair, ACAP Advisory Committee, 27 December 2018

On-board cameras to continue monitoring of seabird mortality in New Zealand fisheries

A trial using on-board cameras on fishing vessels to monitor accidental capture of seabirds, including the ACAP-listed and globally and Nationally Vulnerable Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni, in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand’s North Island that commenced in 2016 is to be extended for another year. The trial aims at testing how well cameras can monitor seabird bycatch compared to human observers while also gathering information on how many seabirds are being caught.

Black Petrel at sea, photograph by 'Biz' Bell

Footage reviewed so far shows cameras and observers see similar numbers of hooked seabirds. The camera footage is clear enough to enable species identifications.

The camera trial is being financed by the three company members of the Black Petrel Working Group and the subsequent data analysis is being financed by Fisheries New Zealand.

Information taken from a WWF-New Zealand press release.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 December 2018

Seasonal greetings and best wishes for 2019 from the ACAP Secretariat

The ACAP Secretariat extends season's greetings and its best wishes for an albatross- and petrel-friendly 2019 to all the readers of ACAP Latest News and to the nearly 3800 followers of the Agreement's Facebook page.

Short-tailed Albatross photograph by Aleks Terauds, artwork by Wiesława Misiak

Christine Bogle, John Cooper and Wieslawa Misiak, ACAP Secretariat, 24 December 2018