A goodly number of ACAP staffers and chief officers have been attending and contributing to the Second World Seabird Conference (WSC2) in Cape Town, South Africa this week.

As well as presenting a number of talks and a poster as listed by title and authors below, ACAP co-organized and led a session at WSC2 with the title “International Agreements and Seabird Conservation”.  The session’s theme follows:

“Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA) such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Migratory Species, and the Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels play key roles in defining national policy, legislation and targets for seabird and marine conservation.  Ensuring that appropriate legislation is in place to tackle the threats and pressures acting on seabird populations is therefore of vital importance if conservation gains are to be made.  The session will serve to demonstrate the main issues involved in trying to conserve seabirds on an international scale and aim to engage the wider seabird research community (especially those who have not been directly involved in the work of MEAs).  The session will showcase examples of success within conventions, illustrating the challenges faced, progress achieved to date, and encourage greater engagement of seabird researchers in the future.”

Mark Tasker (ACAP Advisory Committee Vice-Chair) & Marco Favero (ACAP Advisory Committee Chair and ACAP Executive Secretary Elect) confer at the podium before a session 

ACAP presentations at WSC2 with their lead authors

Cooper, John.  The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels: a growing resource for information on procellariiform research and conservation (poster).

Favero, Marco.  Building a framework to prioritise conservation actions: the work of ACAP in facing land-based and at-sea threats to albatrosses and petrels.

Tasker, Mark.  Working with governments and international organisations – experience from ACAP.

Wolfaardt, Anton.  Bycatch issues – which agreements/conventions have a role to play.

Wolfaardt, Anton.  Seabird bycatch in small-scale fisheries: an ACAP (Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels) perspective.

ACAP's poster at WSC2

Click here to access abstracts of the above presentations.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 October 2015

The Second World Seabird Conference (WSC2) is being held this week in Cape Town, South Africa with three sessions on seabird bycatch in fisheries, ranging from longline, trawl and nets and from recreational, artisanal to commercial.

No less than six presentations on mitigating seabird bycatch in longline and trawl fisheries were made by conference delegates from South Africa and Namibia to the three sessions (click here for the conference programme).  Their five presenters showed how university-supported research, NGO advocacy, governmental legislation and fisher willingness have been brought together to reduce the bycatch of albatrosses and petrels within the Benguela Current off the Atlantic coast of southern Africa by as much as 90%.  Over the last decade this has led to higher degrees, publications in scientific journals, national and international awards, many more seabirds surviving to wing the oceans, and an ongoing example for other fishing nations to follow.

 Bokamoso Lebepe of BirdLife South Africa gives a cheerful thumbs up after his presentation this week

 Samantha Petesersen receives an international award for her PhD thesis on bycatch in southern Africa

 Mitigation research and advocacy by Bronwyn Currie of BirdLife South Africa has been internationally recognized

Ross Wanless has received national awards for his leadership on seabird bycatch in Africa

Southern African presentations at WSC2

Lebepe, Bokamoso (BirdLife South Africa).  A review of seabird bycatch in three South African fisheries and the impact of monitoring and legislation for management.

Madden, Christine (BirdLife South Africa).  Bird Barriers:  a silver lining for seabirds in South Africa’s demersal trawl fishery.

Maree, Bronwyn (BirdLife South Africa).  99% there: seabird bycatch success story in a South African trawl fishery.

Naomab, Clemens (Namibia Nature Foundation).  Reducing seabird mortality in the Namibian demersal longline fishery.

Rollinson, Dominic (FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town).  Diving behaviour of Procellaria petrels and its relevance for mitigating longline bycatch.

Rollinson, Dominic (FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town).  Factors affecting seabird bycatch in the pelagic longline fishery off South Africa (poster). 

Click here for abstracts of the above five talks.

Significant South African publications on seabird bycatch

[Cooper, J., Petersen, S.L. & Ryan, P.G.] 2008.  South African National Plan of Action for Reducing the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries. Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism.  32 pp.

Maree, B.A., Wanless, R.M., Fairweather, T.P., Sullivan, B.J. & Yates, O. 2014.  Significant reductions in mortality of threatened seabirds in a South African trawl fishery.  Animal Conservation 17: 520-529.

Petersen, S.L., Honig, M.B., Ryan, P.G. & Underhill, L.G. 2009.  Seabird bycatch in the pelagic longline fishery off southern Africa.  African Journal of Marine Science 31: 191-204.

Petersen, S.L., Honig, M.B., Ryan, P.G., Underhill, L.G. & Goren, M. 2009.  Seabird bycatch in the demersal longline fishery off southern Africa.  African Journal of Marine Science 31: 205-214.

Watkins, B.P., Petersen, S.L. & Ryan, P.G. 2008.  Interactions between seabirds and deep-water hake trawl gear: an assessment of impacts in South African waters.  Animal Conservation 11: 247-254.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 October 2015

A juvenile ACAP-listed and Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena that was tracked at sea from 21 December 2013 when it fledged from Gough Island in the South Atlantic to 07 January 2015 travelled a total of 186 684 km, an average of nearly 500 km a day for 383 days.

This record is in the Global Seabird Tracking Database of BirdLife International that has just passed five million data points.  The database, originally called ‘Tracking Ocean Wanderers’, was established in 2003 when data on the movements of 16 species of albatrosses and petrels were brought together for the first time (click here).  The database now holds information from five times as many species, provided by over 120 research institutes.

Tristan Albatross at sea, photograph by Martin Abreu

ACAP-listed Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris and Cory’s Calonectris borealis and Scopoli’s C. diomedea Shearwaters are among the most-studied species in terms of numbers of data points and tracks in the database.  The tracking data can be viewed online.

Read more on the Global Seabird Tracking Database here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 October 2015

The Second World Seabird Conference (WSC2), with the overall theme “Seabirds: Global Ocean Sentinels” is being held this week in the International Conference Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. The formal programme starts today, following on from a welcome reception held in the centre yesterday evening.

The programme of talks in parallel sessions and of over 200 posters, along with their abstracts may be found on the conference website.

Grey-headed Albatrosses, photograph by Rowan Treblico

Of specific interest to the Albatross and Petrel Agreement are two sessions on fishery bycatch and a workshop on tackling seabird bycatch in small-scale fisheries. A session on international agreements and seabird conservation will also be held with ACAP making two presentations to it.  The Agreement is also presenting a poster that details its website as a growing resource for information on procellariiform research and conservation.

WSC2 is being hosted by the African Seabird Group and the World Seabird Union.  The Local Organizing Committee is chaired by Ross Wanless (BirdLife South Africa's Seabird Division Manager and African Seabird Group Chair).  The Scientific Programme Committee Chair is Peter Ryan (Director, FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town).

The First World Seabird Conference was held in in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in September 2010 with over 800 registered attendees from more than 50 countries.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 October 2015