“Do you have a passion for marine conservation? Do you have strong knowledge of fisheries interactions with seabirds, marine mammals, sharks and turtles? We are looking for a new member of the BirdLife Marine Programme team, hosted by the RSPB, to examine the effectiveness of a leading fisheries sustainability certification scheme in assessing and tackling impacts on populations of these species.

You will carry out a review of non-target species bycatch (covering seabirds, turtles, marine mammals and sharks) in the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification process, particularly considering changes before and after the renewal of their fisheries standard in 2014. The review will examine the performance of case study fisheries against the bycatch-relevant 'performance indicators' of the MSC standard, and will investigate the effectiveness of any improvements fisheries have been required to make as part of their certification. You will explore the key factors that have driven successful and unsuccessful implementation of these improvements, and make recommendations based on your findings. The postholder will also have an important role in communicating the outputs of the review with key stakeholders.

The review will be guided by a Steering Group of relevant bycatch taxon experts from conservation NGOs and academic institutions, including key BirdLife staff and at least three external advisors.

This is an exciting opportunity to inform the development of a global seafood sustainability standard, to connect with marine conservation experts and to join a dynamic team that has worked to reduce seabird bycatch in fisheries for over a decade.”

Grey-headed Albatrosses are at risk to longlining, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

The closing date is 6 August 2017; read more here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 July 2017

Artificial nests are to be constructed in order to improve the breeding success of globally Near Threatened Shy Albatrosses Thalassarche cauta, an ACAP-listed species endemic to Australia where it is listed as nationally Vulnerable.

“With $110,000 from the federal government, as well as funding from the Tasmanian Department of the Environment, the CSIRO and WWF Australia, [Rachel] Alderman plans to install 100 nests this year before the breeding season starts in September.  The nests will be approximately 1 metre wide and 30 cm high.”

Shy Albatross, photograph by Drew Lee

Read more here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 July 2017

Oli Yates, BirdLife International‘s Albatross Task Force Programme Manager writes to ACAP Latest News with news of the task force:

“It has been a busy year for the Albatross Task Force (ATF), and our teams have made good progress in achieving their objectives towards reducing the bycatch of vulnerable seabirds in some of the world’s most deadly fisheries.  The annual progress report just released gives a full update country by country, but I would like to highlight a few of the major successes of the year.

I’m happy to say that 8/10 of our high-priority fisheries now have regulations to protect seabirds, following an announcement from Argentina that seabird regulations are to be introduced by May 2018 that will require trawlers to use bird-scaring lines. The benefit for seabirds in Argentina will be huge, as the main trawl fleet is responsible for the death of 13 500 Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris a year, an impact we expect to reduce by over 85% based on experimental results.

Across the Atlantic in Namibia, since regulations came into force there, 100% of trawl and demersal longline vessels have now been provisioned with bird-scaring lines, constructed through our collaboration with a local women’s group [Meme Itumbapo]. By next year we hope to show that Namibia has achieved significant bycatch reductions as we have previously documented in South Africa. This will be a major win, as our estimates for the two Namibian fleets suggest in excess of 25 000 seabirds were previously killed annually. 

Our work in small-scale fisheries has also leapt forward over the last 12 months; in Chile we have shown that modifications to purse-seine net design has the potential to reduce shearwater bycatch massively, and in Peru trials of net lights have virtually eliminated bycatch of not only seabirds, but also turtles and marine mammals. This is all hugely exciting as no mitigation measures previously existed for these types of fisheries.

All of these successes have only been possible due to the collaborative efforts between our in-country partners, the Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds and BirdLife International, plus generous funding from RSPB membership, external sponsors and many kind individual donations. We are extremely thankful for the continued support we receive, without which we would not be able to keep up the fight to save the albatross.”

Read more here.

With thanks to Olie Yates.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 June 2017

The 21st Session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) was held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from 22-26 May. The Albatross and Petrel Agreement was represented by Anton Wolfaardt, Convenor of its Seabird Bycatch Working Group.

Previously, the IOTC’s Working Party on Ecosystems and Bycatch (WPEB) recommended at its 12th Meeting held in September 2016 that when the IOTC Seabird Conservation and Management Measure (Resolution 12/06 On Reducing the Incidental Bycatch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries of 2006) 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).  These recommendations were subsequently endorsed at the 19th Session of the IOTC’s Scientific Committee in December 2016.

On the basis of IOTC’s scientific support for ACAP’s best-practice advice, some IOTC Contracting Parties were considering drafting a proposal to update Resolution 12/06 to bring it closer to the current ACAP advice. Later in the year, Parties decided they needed more time to discuss the proposal further with their relevant country agencies, and intend to continue working towards a proposal in 2017, for submission to the 2018 IOTC Commission meeting.

ACAP will continue to work with its Parties, IOTC Contracting Parties, and other RFMOs, to help support the adoption and implementation of seabird bycatch mitigation measures that are informed by ACAP’s best-practice advice.

AntonWolfaardt, Convenor, ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group, 29 June 2017