Harriet Paterson (University of Western Australia, Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management, Albany, Australia) and Nick Dunlop have published open access in the journal Marine Ornithology on the paucity of plastic pollution in globally Near Threatened Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes are declining globally, and exposure to plastic pollution may be a contributing factor. To investigate the exposure of the southwestern Australian population to plastic, under the assumption that fragments would be defecated by burrow occupants or occasionally spilled as parents regurgitate food to their young, and samples were collected from nesting burrows from Shelter and Breaksea islands and examined for plastic fragments. One fragment was found among a total of 67 burrows inspected. The lack of plastics may be due to the feeding habits of these birds, or the availability of plastics related to local oceanography. Our study provides evidence that plastics may not yet be an issue for nesting Flesh-footed Shearwaters on the south coast of Western Australia.”

Flesh-footed Shearwater, photograph by Barry Baker

Reference:

Paterson, H.L. & Dunlop, J.N. 2018.  Minimal plastic in flesh-footed shearwater Ardenna carneipes burrows at southwestern Australia colonies.  Marine Ornithology 46: 165-167.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 September 2018

Sasa Otovic (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Battery Point, Tasmania, Australia) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Marine Ornithology on Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus (Least Concern) observed by automated cameras.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“We report the first results from a 3-year study of the annual cycle of Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus in two colonies in East Antarctica. We tested the utility of a system of automated cameras that monitored and recorded events in the colonies year-round. Based on the collected images, we determined a detailed phenology of breeding events and activities throughout winter. The timing of some portions of the annual cycle (e.g., laying dates) were similar, whereas other aspects of the annual cycle differed between locations (e.g., pair formation and length of the non-brooding guard phase). Comparisons with other breeding locations throughout the species' range showed that lay dates vary with latitude but are synchronous at each site.”

A Southern Giant Petrel in East Antarctica, photograph by Jeroen Creuwels

Reference:

Otovic, S., Riley, M., Hay, I., McKinlay, J., Van Den Hoff, J. & Wienecke, B. 2018. The annual cycle of Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus in East Antarctica. Marine Ornithology 46: 129-138 + appendix.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 September 2018

“If I were Bill Gates, this is where I would put my money” said Peter Ryan, Director of the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at South Africa’s University of Cape Town.  The A-rated ornithologist and University Fellow presented a plenary talk entitled Seabird Conservation - a Southern Hemisphere Perspective at this month’s 27th International Ornithological Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

In his presentation Professor Ryan referred to the Marion Mouse Free project that aims to eradicate the introduced House Mice Mus musculus that are killing ACAP-listed albatrosses and other seabirds at South Africa’s sub-Antarctic island (click here), encouraging support for BirdLife South Africa’s  “adopt a hectare” fund-raising scheme to support the initiative to get rid of the mice.

Mouse attack!  A scalped Wandering Albatross chick on Marion Island, photograph by Stefan Schoombie

Read more here. Also watch a video.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 31 August 2018

Yuri Artukhin (Far East Branch, Pacific Geographical Institute, Vladivostok, Russia) and colleagues have published in Russian on mortality of Short-tailed Shearwaters Ardenna tenuirostris (Least Concern) and other marine life in Japanese and Russian driftnet fisheries.  It appears the book was originally published in 2010 but has been made available online this month with an English abstract.

Short-tailed Shearwater at sea, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

A description of the book follows:

“The origins and development of the salmon driftnet fishery in the northwest Pacific are described. The scope of the modern gillnet fishery in the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), as well as its research and monitoring programs.  Gillnet fishery methods in the Russian EEZ and the monitoring effort by commercial Japanese and scientific Russian  leets are described. Marine bird and mammal by-catch data collected during the large scale salmon fishery from the 1990s through the early 2000s are summarized in detail. Species composition and seasonal, interannual and geographic variation in by-catch mortality are analyzed. Estimates of bird and mammal mortality in gillnets are presented and the potential effect of the fishery on populations is discussed. Global measures to mitigate gillnet by-catch are presented, as is the potential of implementing some of these measures in Russian waters.”

Click here to access the book’s long English abstract.

Reference:

Yuri B. Artukhin, Y.B., Burkanov, V.N. & Nikulin, V.S. 2010 [2018].  Accidental by-catch of marine birds and mammals in the salmon gillnet fishery in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Moscow: Skorost' Tsveta.  264 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 August 2018