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.

Contact the ACAP Communications Advisor if you wish to have your news featured.

Necropsied Black-footed Albatross chicks contain more plastic than do adults

Dan Rapp (Hawaii Pacific University, Marine Science Programs at Oceanic Institute, Waimanalo, Hawaii, USA) and colleagues have published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin on ingested plastics in both chicks and adults of globally Near Threatened Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses and other seabirds at Hawaii’s French Frigate Shoals.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Between 2006 and 2013, we salvaged and necropsied 362 seabird specimens from Tern Island, French Frigate Shoals, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Plastic ingestion occurred in 11 of the 16 species sampled (68.75%), representing four orders, seven families, and five foraging guilds: four plunge-divers, two albatrosses, two nocturnal-foraging petrels, two tuna-birds, and one frigatebird. Moreover, we documented the first instance of ingestion in a previously unstudied species: the Brown Booby. Plastic prevalence (percent occurrence) ranged from 0% to 100%, with no significant differences across foraging guilds. However, occurrence was significantly higher in chicks versus adult conspecifics in the Black-footed Albatross, one of the three species where multiple age classes were sampled. While seabirds ingested a variety of plastic (foam, line, sheets), fragments were the most common and numerous type. In albatrosses and storm-petrels, the plastic occurrence in the two stomach chambers (the proventriculus and the ventriculus) was not significantly different.”

 

Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses, photograph courtesy of the Kure Atoll Conservancy

Reference:

Rapp, D.C., Youngren, S.M., Hartzell, P. & Hyrenbach, K.D. 2017. Community-wide patterns of plastic ingestion in seabirds breeding at French Frigate Shoals, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Marine Pollution Bulletin doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.08.047.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 August 2017

UPDATED. Second time lucky? Rat eradication has commenced by aerial bait drop on Hawaii’s Lehua Island

UPDATE: Get the whole story from island Conservation's Operation Lehua website.

Lehua is a small, crescent-shaped island situated a kilometre off the coast of Kauai in the USA’s Hawaiian Islands. Small numbers of Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses, both globally Near Threatened, have bred on Lehua since at least 2002. Large numbers of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters Ardenna pacifica also breed.  Lehua is managed as a State Seabird Sanctuary.

Lehua Island, photographs by Eric Vanderwerf

An attempt to rid the island of Pacific Rats Rattus exulans in 2009 was unsuccessful but now after study and discussion over several years and the issuing of the necessary permits the operation is being repeated. The first of three planned aerial drops of bait totalling 10 tons containing the first-generation anticoagulant rodenticide Diphacinone was undertaken this week, with the following drops expected in the next few weeks depending on the weather. Ground baiting was also undertaken.

“The [first stage of the] operation was executed as planned - successfully, safely, and under the close watch of regulators from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture and an independent monitoring team from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.” (click here).

Read more media reports here and here.

Read more on Lehua Island and its albatrosses in ACAP Latest News here.

View the Lehua Island Restoration Project Final Environmental Assessment for more information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 August 2017, updated 26 August 2017

The National Geographic Society has funds to study long-distance migratory species

The National Geographic Society’s Grant Programs is making a call for applications to study long-distance migratory species.

Priority will be given to projects that aim to do one or more of the following:

  • fill critical knowledge gaps that can help reverse negative population trends;
  • demonstrate methods for improving population viability;
  • seek to promote the effective conservation of migratory populations and species;
  • develop intervention plans to help overwintering, breeding, or stopover sites; or
  • use public-private partnership models to protect migratory species and pathways.

Applicants may request US$10 000 - US$150 000 over one or two years.

Northern royal flying 3 by Aleks Terauds

New Zealand to South America (and back): the Northern Royal Albatross is a long-distance migrant, photograph by Aleks Terauds

“Projects may be focused around conservation, education, research, storytelling, or technology, but all applications should explicitly state the plan for evaluating the impact of the work. Preference will be given to proposals that include feasible plans to measure baselines or demonstrate change in key indicators (e.g., migratory habitat size, habitat trends, population size, population trends and connectivity, vital rates, threat factors).”

The deadline for submission of proposals is 1 October 2017.

Find more information here.

With thanks to Mark Carey.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 August 2017

Albatrosses may eat more jellyfish than conventional diet studies suggest

Julie McInnes (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia) and colleagues have a publication with Molecular Ecology on jellyfish consumption by globally Near Threatened Black-browed Thalassarche melanophris and globally Vulnerable Campbell T. impavida Albatrosses.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Gelatinous zooplankton are a large component of the animal biomass in all marine environments, but are considered to be uncommon in the diet of most marine top predators. However, the diets of key predator groups like seabirds have conventionally been assessed from stomach content analyses, which cannot detect most gelatinous prey. As marine top predators are used to identify changes in the overall species composition of marine ecosystems, such biases in dietary assessment may impact our detection of important ecosystem regime shifts. We investigated albatross diet using DNA metabarcoding of scats to assess the prevalence of gelatinous zooplankton consumption by two albatross species, one of which is used as an indicator species for ecosystem monitoring. Black-browed and Campbell albatross scats were collected from eight breeding colonies covering the circumpolar range of these birds over two consecutive breeding seasons. Fish was the main dietary item at most sites; however, cnidarian DNA, primarily from scyphozoan jellyfish, was present in 42% of samples overall and up to 80% of samples at some sites. Jellyfish was detected during all breeding stages and consumed by adults and chicks. Trawl fishery catches of jellyfish near the Falkland Islands indicate a similar frequency of jellyfish occurrence in albatross diets in years of high and low jellyfish availability, suggesting jellyfish consumption may be selective rather than opportunistic. Warmer oceans and overfishing of finfish are predicted to favour jellyfish population increases, and we demonstrate here that dietary DNA metabarcoding enables measurements of the contribution of gelatinous zooplankton to the diet of marine predators."

A Campbell Albatross preens its downy chick, photograph by David Evans

Wth thanks to Richard Phillips.

Reference:

McInnes, J.C., Alderman, R., Lea, M.-A., Raymond, B., Deagle, B.E., Phillips, R.A., Stanworth, A., Thompson, D.R., Catry, P., Weimerskirch, H., Suazo, C.G., Gras, M. & Jarman, S.N. 2017. High occurrence of jellyfish predation by black-browed and Campbell albatross identified by DNA metabarcoding. Molecular Ecology DOI: 10.1111/mec.14245.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 August 2017

How to study Grey Petrels in the cold: the Macca experience

The ACAP-listed and globally Near Threatened Grey Petrel Procellaria cinerea is a relatively little-studied species that breeds in winter on sub-Antarctic islands. On more than one such island it has been proven to be at risk to introduced feral cats or rodents.

On Australia’s now pest-free Macquarie Island Grey Petrels have been making a comeback since the last cats were killed. Annual monitoring continues as Penny Pascoe, Macquarie Island Wildlife Ranger reports in the latest issue of Macca’s on-line newsletter, This Week at Macquarie Island:

“Grey petrels are burrow-nesting seabirds, raising their chicks in burrows underground. While first reported breeding on Macquarie Island was in 1900, cats and rabbits had a detrimental effect on their numbers and breeding was not observed again for almost 100 years, until 1999. With cats and rabbits now successfully eradicated, grey petrel numbers are starting to rise, with over 120 breeding pairs found last season.

Grey petrel burrows tend to occur in clusters and known breeding sites are distributed around much of the island’s coastal slopes with the greatest concentration found on North Head, just north of the station. Over the past few months we have been trying to determine their breeding population size by searching for and checking burrows. This can be very cold work! It is nearly always wet and windy and sometimes there is snow. Finding a burrow amongst the dense tussock can be a challenge, but after a while you get an eye for the tell-tail signs like diggings, faeces and a distinct, musky smell.

Finding the burrow is just the first challenge; the next is to determine what is in it. This is usually a multi-step process. A torch is used first to peep inside. If nothing can be seen then a pocket camera is used at arm’s length to look in further. If this still does not reveal anything a GoPro on a stick is used to look even deeper. There is quite an art to keeping your fingers warm enough for them to work, but not so thickly swaddled in gloves that you cannot operate a camera anymore! It is always a great reward when you pull your muddy arm back out of a burrow, look at the photos you have taken and see a beautiful fluffy chick!”

Grey Petrel adult and chick in burrows on Maquarie Island, Photographs by Penny Pascoe

Read earlier ACAP Latest News reports on the fortunes of Macquarie’s Grey Petrels here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 August 2017

The Agreement on the
Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks to conserve listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by coordinating international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations.

About ACAP

ACAP Secretariat

119 Macquarie St
Hobart TAS 7000
Australia

Email: secretariat@acap.aq
Tel: +61 3 6165 6674