Wildlife Rangers and ornithological field workers Marcus Salton and Kim Kliska on Australia’s Macquarie Island report that Near Threatened and ACAP-listed Grey Petrels Procellaria cinerea are continuing to do well after the eradication of rabbits and rodents by the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project (MIPEP) in 2011.

“The hunt for grey petrels has continued since May.  It has been a team effort searching areas used by grey petrels.  The aim is to estimate the number of grey petrel breeding pairs on Macquarie Island.  To do this we have been carefully scouring patches of thick tussock looking and sniffing for signs of grey petrels.  When we find something promising we take a closer look, either sticking our head right into the burrow or using a go-pro on a selfie-stick that is linked to a screen/tablet.

To date the team has recorded 94 breeding pairs: not quite a record, but we are getting close.  So far our number of breeding pairs is greater than all the totals recorded prior to the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project (MIPEP).  This suggests the breeding population has increased since MIPEP – great news!  Now that there are no more rabbits on the island the vegetation is growing and providing much more stable habitat for grey petrels and other burrowing seabirds.  There are still more than 10 out of 35 areas to search for grey petrels.  Fingers crossed we are able to find more breeding pairs than were recorded in 2011 (112 breeding pairs), because this would mean the population is continuing to grow.” (click here).

Grey Petrel chick on Macquarie Island

Read earlier ACAP Latest News reports on Macca’s recovering Grey Petrels here.

Reference:

Schultz, M., Robinson, S. & Gales, R.[P.] 2006.  Breeding of the Grey Petrel (Procellaria cinerea) on Macquarie Island: population size and nesting habitat.  Emu 105: 323-329.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 July 2016

At its 40th Session held in Istanbul, Turkey this month the Committee of the World Heritage Convention considered the plight of Gough Island (part of a World Heritage Site) and its seabirds, including the Critically Endangered and ACAP-listed Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena that is under threat from introduced House Mice Mus musculus.  It also considered plans (click here) by the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to eradicate the mice.

The Committee noted that although:

 “allocation of three-quarters of the eradication programme budget is anticipated through RSPB’s fundraising campaign, it is of concern that the remaining funding source has not yet been confirmed.  Considering the urgent need to address the threat … it is recommended that the Committee request the State Party to urgently allocate sufficient funds for the rapid implementation of the eradication programme.”

The Committee further requested that “the State Party … take urgent action to eradicate mice from the island and urges the State Party to make a firm commitment to allocate sufficient funds for the rapid implementation of the house mouse eradication project”.

(click here for the full text of the WHC document).

Read a news report on the issue here.

A Tristan Albatross chick begs from its parent on Gough Island, photograph by Andrea Angel and Ross Wanless

Meanwhile, an independent review by the Institute for European Environmental Policy commissioned by the RSPB has concluded that the “Gough and Inaccessible Islands WHS [World Heritage Site] clearly meets the criteria for inclusion on the List of World Heritage in danger” and that “the site should be urgently added to the List” because of the threats its birds face from mice.

With thanks to John Kelly.

Reference:

Tucker, G. & Underwood, E. 2016.  Gough and Inaccessible Islands World Heritage Site: an Assessment of its Status and Case for Inclusion on the List of World Heritage in Danger.  London: Institute for European Environmental Policy.  40 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 July 2016

The Committee of the World Heritage Convention (formally the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted in 1972) has added the Archipiélgo de Revillagigedo (Revillagigedo Islands), a group of four Mexican islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean, as a natural Site to the World Heritage List under Criteria (vii), (ix) and (x) during its 40th Session in Istanbul, Turkey this month (click here).

The island group is home to the endemic and Critically Endangered Townsend’s Shearwater Puffinus auricularis, now restricted to Socorro Island, and to small populations of ACAP-listed and Near Threatened Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis on Clarión and San Benedicto Islands.

A Laysan Albatross hatches its egg on Clarión Island, photograph by Ross Wanless

The Reserva de la Biosfera Archipiélgo de Revillagigedo was established in 1994 and was designated as a Ramsar Wetland Site of International Importance (No. 1537) in 2004.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 July 2016

Richard Phillips (British Antarctic Survey, Madingley Road, Cambridge, UK) and colleagues involved with the Albatross and Petrel Agreement have reviewed the conservation of albatrosses and large petrels in the journal Biological Conservation.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Seabirds are amongst the most globally-threatened of all groups of birds, and conservation issues specific to albatrosses (Diomedeidae) and large petrels (Procellaria spp. and giant petrels Macronectes spp.) led to drafting of the multi-lateral Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP). Here we review the taxonomy, breeding and foraging distributions, population status and trends, threats and priorities for the 29 species covered by ACAP. Nineteen (66%) are listed as threatened by IUCN, and 11 (38%) are declining. Most have extensive at-sea distributions, and the greatest threat is incidental mortality (bycatch) in industrial pelagic or demersal longline, trawl or artisanal fisheries, often in both national and international waters. Mitigation measures are available that reduce bycatch in most types of fisheries, but some management bodies are yet to make these mandatory, levels of implementation and monitoring of compliance are often inadequate, and there are insufficient observer programmes collecting robust data on bycatch rates. Intentional take, pollution (including plastic ingestion), and threats at colonies affect fewer species than bycatch; however, the impacts of disease (mainly avian cholera) and of predation by introduced species, including feral cats (Felis catus), rats (Rattus spp.) and house mice (Mus musculus), are severe for some breeding populations. Although major progress has been made in recent years in reducing bycatch rates and in controlling or eradicating pests at breeding sites, unless conservation efforts are intensified, the future prospects of many species of albatrosses and large petrels will remain bleak.”

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, photograph by Peter Ryan

With thanks to Richard Phillips.

Reference:

Phillips, R.A., Gales, R., Baker, G.B., Double, M.C., Favero, M., Quintana, F., Tasker, M.L., Weimerskirch, H,. Uhart, M. & Wolfaardt, A.[C.] 2016.  The conservation status and priorities for albatrosses and large petrels.  Biological Conservation 201: 169-183.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 July 2016