Five Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs)* exist to monitor, offer advice and set regulations in an effort to ensure the sustainability of commercially-caught tuna and tuna-like species on the High Seas.  These five tRFMOs have been the focus of conservationists in the last few decades in an attempt to reduce the bycatch of threatened albatrosses and petrels drowned on pelagic longlines.  ACAP has been working closely with the tRFMOs, attending meetings of their committees and working groups.  In order to formalize relations ACAP has signed agreements (usually known as Memoranda of Understanding) with four of the five tRFMOs (click here).

ACAP has now completed these arrangements with the signing last month of “Guidelines for Cooperation” with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) “with a view to supporting efforts to minimise the incidental by-catch of albatrosses and petrels listed in Annex 1 of ACAP within ICCAT’s Convention area”.

The Tristan Albatross occurs within ICCAT waters, photograph by Martin Abreu

The three-page document sets out areas of cooperation between ACAP and ICCAT as set out below.

“ICCAT and the ACAP Secretariat may consult, cooperate and collaborate with each other on areas of common interest that are directly or indirectly relevant to the conservation, including the protection and management, of populations of albatrosses and petrels, including:

a)  development of systems for collecting and analysing data, and exchanging information concerning the bycatch of albatrosses and petrels in ICCAT fisheries;

b)  exchange of information, subject to the confidentiality requirements of the respective organisations, regarding management approaches relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels;

c)  implementation of education and awareness programmes for fishers who operate in areas where albatrosses and petrels may be encountered;

d)  design, testing and implementation of albatross and petrel bycatch mitigation measures relevant to ICCAT fisheries;

e)  development of training programmes on conservation techniques and measures to mitigate threats affecting albatrosses and petrels; and

f)  exchange of expertise, techniques and knowledge relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels in ICCAT fisheries and

g)  reciprocal participation with observer status at the relevant meetings of ACAP and ICCAT.”

The guidelines will be in place for six years, from when they will be reviewed and either renewed or amended.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 April 2016

*Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT)

International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)

Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC)

Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)

Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC)

In December this year 55 researchers from 30 nations will set off on an international scientific expedition from Cape Town, South Africa to circumnavigate Antarctica for three months aboard the Russian research vessel Akademik Treshnikov.  The Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE), set to last until March 2017, is the first project of the recently established Swiss Polar Institute.  The 22 selected research projects to be conducted range from glaciology to climatology, biology and oceanography.

Experienced seabird researcher, Henri Weimerskirch from the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, France, will lead one of the ACE projects entitled “Monitoring of threatened albatrosses and penguins: population censuses and distribution at sea”.  A description of the project follows:

“The aim of the project is to obtain vital new information on the population status of several threatened and/or globally important species of albatrosses and penguins.  The islands to be visited during ACE are those identified as top priorities for surveys of specific populations by the Populations and Conservation Status Working Group of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), or hold major populations of penguins for which no recent count data exists.  We will also validate the use of satellite imagery for counting great Diomedea spp. albatrosses.  In addition, depending on permits for access to some islands, the tagging of several key populations of albatrosses will allow for the first time the evaluation of habitat preferences of these top predators during the breeding season, which is critical for modelling the potential impact of climate and oceanographic change.  In addition, the tracking and isotopic sampling study will allow us to estimate the degree of overlap between albatrosses and penguins and the marine environment and measure overlap with fisheries, which are a major threat to several species.”

Southern Ocean islands planned to be visited during the circumnavigation that support breeding populations of albatrosses include the Prince Edwards, Crozets, Kerguelen, Macquarie and South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)*.

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross on Prince Edward Island, photograph by Peter Ryan

Read about the expedition’s other research projects here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 April 2016

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

Lucas Krüger (MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, University of Coimbra, Portugal) and colleagues have published early on-line in the journal Polar Biology on Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus being attracted to fishing vessels at night.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Many seabird species forage at night and potentially interact with nocturnal fishing activities.  Jigging fisheries use powerful lights to attract squid, and such high intensity lights can be recorded using global location-sensing loggers (geolocators) attached to seabirds.  We use this potential source of information as evidence for interaction of southern giant petrelsMacronectes giganteus with night fisheries during the non-breeding season.  We compared the number of light spikes at night between sexes and evaluated whether the intensity of the light on those geolocator records matched periods of water immersion (wet–dry) of geolocators, as a measure of foraging activity.   Females had more night light spikes than males, and although the activity on water was higher during nights with light spikes than nights without light spikes for both sexes, females had a higher probability to be resting on the water when peaks of light were higher.  Females moved further north than males and used areas of higher squid fishery activities within Patagonian waters.  This type of information is useful to record potential interactions with night fisheries and proposes that future studies should relate the accurate distribution of individuals (from GPS loggers) with light information (geolocators data) to highlight this undocumented interaction.  Southern giant petrels are recognized as interacting intensively with fisheries off Patagonia waters with consequences for population dynamics (e.g. mortality through bycatch events).”

Southern Giant Petrel at sea, photograph by Warwick Barnes

Reference:

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 April 2016

An international team will be heading for sub-Antarctic Antipodes Island next month to eradicate introduced House Mice Mus musculus by aerial poison bait drop.  This follows on a successful fund-raising campaign by the Morgan Foundation’s Million Dollar Mouse project, supported by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, Island Conservation and WWF-New Zealand.

 A view of the main island in the Antipodes, with mouse-free Bollons Island in the background, photograph by Erica Sommer

The 19-person operational team will be led by Stephen Horn, assisted by Keith Hawkins, both with the Department of Conservation and includes Keith Springer as Operational Advisor and Safety Officer, all of whom are New Zealanders.  Keith previously managed the successful project to eradicate rodents and rabbits on Australia’s Macquarie Island and was part of Team Rat on South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)*.  The six bait loaders include Jason Zito from Hawaii and Jose-Luis Hererra from Colombia who work with the USA-based NGO Island Conservation.  Other members of the operational team include New Zealanders Chief Pilot Tony Michelle (who was a member of Team Rat in 2013) and pilot Darron McCulley,a helicopter engineer, a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) mapping specialist (Ann De Schutter, originally from Belgium) and a medical doctor, Jamie Doube, who was also with Team Rat.

Antipodean Albatross - with megaherb - on Main Island, Antipodes, photograph by Colin O'Donnell

 Field trials took place last month in loading helicopters onto the transport ship Norfolk Guardian and (non-poison) bait loading and spreading on the Levels Raceway at Timaru, South Island (click here for videos).

The Norfolk Guardian is set to depart from Timaru for the Antipodes on 24 May with baiting planned to commence by 15 June at the latest.  The initial task will be for six builders to erect a temporary platform and hangar ashore for the two helicopters supplied by Island Aerial Solutions.  The vessel will carry the helicopters, the cereal bait in specially-constructed wooden bait boxes, 30 tonnes of Jet Fuel in 200-litre drums and some of the team to the island.  It will stay on site for up to two weeks until the cargo is off-loaded and the structures erected.  The yacht Evohe will depart Dunedin on 23 May for the Antipodes to deliver the other 12 members of the team.  Prior to departure biosecurity and safety training will be given in Invercargill to both groups.

The eradication of mice on Antipodes will follow their successful demise on Macquarie and (to be confirmed) South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)* in the Southern Ocean.  If it achieves its goal it should give a boost to plans to eradicate the predatory mice of Gough Island that are ravaging that island’s birds (click here).

ACAP Latest News will report on the eradication exercise as it progresses.  Follow its fortunes on its website blog and Facebook page.

With thanks to Keith Springer for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 April 2016

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.