The ACAP-listed and globally Vulnerable Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus has had its national status recently re-assessed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC),as Endangered (defined as facing imminent extirpation or extinction) from its previous 2004 category of Threatened* (click here).

Pink-footed Shearwater on Isla Mocha, photograph by Jonathan Felis

“Breeding on only three small islands off the coast of Chile, many of these birds travel thousands of kilometres north to feed along the coast of British Columbia during our summer months.  The species' southern home is under multiple threats from humans and exotic predators, and shearwaters are killed as fishing by-catch throughout its range.”  However, it is to be noted that despite the worsening category of threat there are as yet no records of the shearwater being taken by commercial fisheries in Canada’s Pacific waters.

Click here for more details of the November 2016 re-assessment.

COSEWIC assesses the status of “wild species, subspecies, varieties, or other important units of biological diversity” considered to be at risk.  The Pink-footed Shearwater currently remains listed as nationally Threatened under Canada’s Species At Risk Act (SARA).

The purpose of SARA is to protect wildlife species at risk in Canada.  COSEWIC was established as an independent body of experts within the Act responsible for identifying and assessing wildlife species considered to be at risk.  Species that have been designated by COSEWIC may then qualify for legal protection and recovery under SARA.

Canada is not a Party to the Albatross and Petrel Agreement but has been regularly sending an observer to attend and contribute to its meetings.

*Note that Canadian national categories of threat do not match those used internationally by BirdLife International and IUCN.  BLI/IUCN ‘Vulnerable’ is approximately the equivalent of COSEWIC ‘Threatened’; and BLI/IUCN ‘Critically Endangered’ and ‘Endangered’ are roughly the same as COSEWIC ‘Endangered’

With thanks to Ken Morgan.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 December 2016

The last of 20 translocated Hawaiian Petrel Pterodroma sandwichensis chicks have fledged from the fenced Nihoku section of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on Hawaiian Kauai Island this breeding season (click here).

A Hawaiian Petrel chick gets translocated

Over two seasons 36 Vulnerable Hawaiian Petrel and Endangered Newell’s Shearwater Puffinus newelli chicks have been removed from their natural burrows in the island’s mountains, where they are risk to feral cats Felis catus and Black Rats Rattus rattus, and hand-reared within the predator-proof enclosure with the aim of creating new colonies of the two threatened species.

Pacific Rim Conservation, the non-profit organization responsible for the feeding of the birds at Nihoku, has stated “We are thrilled that every single petrel and shearwater translocated this season successfully fledged from the translocation site.”  The translocation project is set to run for five years.

A Newell's Shearwater chick, photograph by Andre Raine

Read more here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 December 2016

A juvenile Chatham Albatross Thalassarche eremita banded with black, white-engraved alphanumeric colour band E17 on the right leg and a metal band on the left leg was photographed by Matias Garrido on a pelagic trip run by Albatross Birding and Nature Tours out of Valparaiso, Chile on 10 December (click here for the trip report).

E17 off South America, photograph by Matias Garrido

E17 on its artificial nest prior to fledging, photograph by Danny Burgin

The bird was one of 50 chicks transferred from New Zealand’s Pyramid (the species’ sole breeding site) to Point Gap on the main Chatham Island back in February, part of a Chatham Island Taiko Trust project trying to establish a second colony.  After being fed for two months it fledged in April this year, the third year of the translocation project (click here).  It is intended to continue translocations for a further two years. 

“It’s fantastic to know the transferred chicks can cross the Pacific to spend the winter off South America even though it will still be a few years before birds from the first year [2014] return to the Chathams.”

Information taken from Facebook pages - with thanks.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 December 2016

The 19th Session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission’s Scientific Committee was held in Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles over 01-05 December.

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement was represented by Anton Wolfaardt, Convenor of its Seabird Bycatch Working Group.  The Scientific Committee considered a number of seabird-related recommendations from the Working Party on Ecosystems and Bycatch (WPEB), which met in September this year (click here).  One of the key recommendations from the WPEB was that when the IOTC Seabird Conservation and Management Measure (Resolution 12/06 On reducing the incidental bycatch of seabirds in longline fisheries) is next reviewed, the line-weighting specifications be updated to conform with the latest ACAP advice.  It further recommended that the two hook-shielding devices recommended by ACAP as best-practice measures be incorporated into a revised IOTC Seabird Conservation and Management Measure as additional mitigation options for use in IOTC fisheries operating south of 25°S (the area of application of Resolution 12/06).

Following consideration of these matters, the Scientific Committee endorsed the WPEB recommendations regarding ACAP’s best-practice advice, and in so doing have provided scientific support for a proposal to update Resolution 12/06.  Such a proposal would need to be submitted by an IOTC Contracting Party to the Commission for their consideration and final adoption.  The next meeting of the IOTC Commission will take place in May 2017.

Anton Wolfaardt, Convenor, ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group, 21 December 2016