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.

Diving behaviour of chick-rearing Pink-footed Shearwaters

Josh Adams (United States Geological Survey, Santa Cruz, California, USA) and colleagues have published open access in the online journal Marine Ornithology on diving behaviour of ACAP-listed and globally Vulnerable Pink-footed Shearwaters Ardenna creatopus.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Recent information reporting Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus mortality from fisheries bycatch throughout its range has encouraged fisheries managers in Chile to evaluate and consider shearwater foraging behaviors to better evaluate risk. In response, we tracked six chick-rearing adult Pink-footed Shearwaters from Isla Mocha, off south-central Chile, from 19 to 28 March 2015 using global positioning sensors and time-depth recorders. We recorded seven complete trips averaging 4.2 ± 2.5 d (mean ± SD). Chick-provisioning adults foraged within 334 km (i.e., 175 ± 100 km) of Isla Mocha. Dives (n = 515) occurred throughout the measured foraging range but most frequently occurred within 5-30 km from the mainland coast, in continental shelf waters north of Valdivia. Other regions with diving behavior were within ~20 km of Isla Mocha, and from Lebu to north of Talcahuano. Based on movement behavior analysis, adults spent most of their time at sea “resting/foraging” (62% ± 6%), with the remainder spent “searching” (16% ± 4%) and “transiting” (20% ± 5%). The proportions of total number of dives associated with these three behaviors were similar. On average, dives were relatively shallow (1.6 ± 1.2 m, maximum depth = 10.1 m) and brief (4.7 ± 4.8 s, maximum duration = 25.7 s). Dives occurred during the day, at night, and at twilight, with most activity occurring at twilight and during the day. Although based on a small sample size, our results may be useful for informing modifications to fishing gear or fisheries policy to reduce the likelihood of bycatch and thus meet Chilean conservation goals for Pink-footed Shearwaters.”

Pink-footed Shearwater at sea, photograph from Oikonos

Reference:

Adams, J., Felis, J.J., Czapanskiy, M., Carle, R.D. & Hodum, P.J. 2019. Diving behavior of Pink-footed Shearwaters Ardenna creatopus rearing chicks on Isla Mocha, Chile. Marine Ornithology 47: 17-24.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 December 2018

From New Zealand to Chile: tracking down a colour-banded albatross photographed at sea

On 7 November 2017, west of Chile in the Pacific Ocean at 30° 20'S, 91° 00'W a great albatross carrying metal and white plastic (engraved 430, right leg) bands was photographed from the yacht H2O at sea by Antoine Chabrolle of France’s Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. The general region visited was approximately 250 km west of Isla Alejandro Selkirk and 300 km south of Isla de Robinson Crusoe. Following an on-line enquiry by Yan Ropert-Coudert, Secretary of the Expert Group on Birds and Marine Mammals of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR-EGBAMM), the bird was found to be a globally Endangered (and Nationally Critical) Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis (of the nominate subspecies antipodensis) from New Zealand’s Antipodes Island.

The Antipodean Albatross takes to the air, revealing its plastic colour and metal bands, photograph by Antoine Chabrolle

Well-known New Zealand albatross researchers, Kath Walker and Graeme Elliott have reported to SCAR-EGBAMM that the bird when photographed was a 17-year old female which was banded (metal band R55568) as a chick. The bird was about to fledge from a nest near the edge of their long-term Antipodes Island study area on 21 December 2000.

Kath Walker further reports: “she returned to the island to court in the summers of 2004 and 2007 but we had not seen her since, probably because she found a mate and started nesting outside our study area, given the location of her natal nest. The location at sea you spotted her is not unexpected as the birds we track wearing loggers use this area, but it’s great to get an actual GPS position, and a photograph, and to know that she [was] actually still alive a decade after we last saw her”.

SCAR-EGBAMM (and its precursors within the Biological Investigations of Marine Systems and Stocks [BIOMASS) and SCAR from the1980s) has and continues to serve a useful purpose in helping identify sightings of colour-banded seabirds in the Southern Ocean by tracking down the original banders.

With thanks to Antoine Chabrolle, Louise Chilvers, Graeme Elliott, Jérôme Fournier, Yan Ropert-Coudert and Kath Walker for their roles in identifying the photographed albatross and supplying information.

References:

Cooper, J, & Oatley, T.B. 1985. A first inventory of colour-banding projects in the Subantarctic and Antarctic, 1965-1984. Cormorant 13: 43-54.

Walker, K.P. & Elliott, G. 2006. At-sea distribution of Gibson’s and Antipodean wandering albatrosses, and relationships with longline fisheries. Notornis 53: 265-290.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 December 2018, updated 07 December 2018

51 eggs! Taiaroa Head’s Northern Royal Albatrosses are set for a record breeding season

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) has reported on the start of the 2018/19 breeding season of globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi at Taiaroa Head.

Fifty-one eggs have been laid this season compared to a range of 30-35 eggs laid annually in the past five years in New Zealand’s only mainland albatross colony, with an overall maximum since colony inception of 36 nests with eggs. Because a female-female pair is present, laying two eggs, the number of breeding pairs this season is actually 50. DOC staff plan to ‘candle’ the eggs to ascertain how many are fertile. Last season’s extreme weather resulted in a high number of failed nests and only 13 chicks fledging, compared with 26 and 23 chicks in the previous two years.

“Breeding usually takes place on a two-year cycle, however birds whose nests fail sometimes return the following season to breed again and this is the reason for this year’s increased nest and egg numbers. We know some eggs will be infertile and one egg was found broken in its nest. While we can expect other challenges such as early embryo deaths, we’re still hopeful this will turn out to be our best breeding season yet.”

“Over the last few weeks we have replaced the irrigation system used to cool the albatrosses on hot, dry days by upgrading the piping to endure the increasingly extreme weather conditions. We also have new egg-candling and supplementary feeding equipment which will improve albatross management.”

The very first breeding attempt to hatch a chick on Tairaroa Head, in 1938; photograph by Lance Richdale (read more here)

In the coming days the live-streaming “Royal Cam” web camera will be in operation directed at a nest as in previous years.

ACAP signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed in Hobart, Australia on 26 November between the ACAP Secretariat and the Meeting of the Parties (MoP) to the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA).

siofa sec A4 181016

High-seas Area of the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement

The objectives of SIOFA are to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of the fishery resources in the area and to promote the sustainable development of fisheries. The fisheries Agreement currently has nine Parties. Signatories to SIOFA include ACAP Parties Australia, France and New Zealand, as well as the European Union. SIOFA, which entered into force in 2012, has its headquarters in La Réunion, France in the Indian Ocean.

The MoU with SIOFA has as its objective the facilitation of efforts to minimise the incidental by-catch of albatrosses and petrels listed in Annex 1 of ACAP that occur within the Area to which SIOFA applies. Areas of cooperation listed in the MoU are:

development of systems for collecting and analysing data, and exchanging information concerning the bycatch of albatrosses and petrels in the Area consistent with the information-sharing policies of each Participant;
exchange of information regarding management approaches relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels;
implementation of education and awareness programmes for fishers who operate in areas where albatrosses and petrels may be encountered;
design, testing and implementation of albatross and petrel bycatch mitigation measures relevant to fishing operations in the Area;
development of training programmes on conservation techniques and measures to mitigate threats affecting albatrosses and petrels; and
exchange of expertise, techniques and knowledge relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels in the Area and reciprocal participation with observer status at the relevant meetings of ACAP and the SIOFA MoP, including its subsidiary bodies.

The new MoU, which is set to be in place for six years, joins ten other MoUs ACAP has signed with Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) and other international bodies, most recently with the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) (click here).

With ACAP’s third Executive Secretary, Christine Bogle, in office from this week, the MoU with SIOFA is the last to be signed (with Kristofer Du Rietz, SIOFA Chairperson) by the outgoing Executive Secretary, Marco Favero.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 December 2018

Adiós Marco. ACAP says goodbye to one Executive Secretary and welcomes another

Starting today, the ACAP Secretariat has a new Executive Secretary as Christine Bogle from New Zealand takes up the position. Friday last week was the last day in office for the outgoing Executive Secretary, Marco Favero of Argentina.

Changing of the guard: third ACAP Executive Secretary Christine Bogle with Marco Favero, second Executive Secretary

Marco, ACAP’s second Executive Secretary, in his last day in the Secretariat’s offices in Hobart took the time to write to ACAP National Contact Points, Chief Officers and Secretariat staffers saying “It has been a privilege to serve ACAP during the last three years in the Secretariat, and during the previous nine years as Chair of the Advisory Committee. I truly believe in our Agreement and the great value of the actions we undertake to improve the conservation status of albatrosses and petrels. I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to all of you supporting the Agreement as well as my work in the Secretariat. This weekend I will fly back to Argentina to resume my work in the National Research Council, hoping to remain engaged with the Agreement from another place.”

ACAP thanks Marco for his service to ACAP and to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels. As a token of their appreciation his grateful colleagues presented him on his last day in Australia with a 100 x 80-cm signed, limited-edition print of award-winning Hobart-based nature artist Katherine Cooper’s 2015 painting of two Shy Albatrosses Thalassarche cauta entitled “Out to Lunch”. Fittingly, the globally Near Threatened species is a Tasmanian endemic, given that the ACAP Secretariat is based in Tasmania’s state capital city.

"Out to Lunch" by Kathy Cooper; Marco Favero's farewell gift

With the next meeting of ACAP to be held in Brazil next year, it is expected that Marco Favero’s presence will not be wholly lost to ACAP and that he will be able to continue to contribute to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels in his new role with Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET). Hasta luego, Marco!

In the meantime ACAP looks forward to working with its third Executive Secretary in the years ahead.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 December 2018