From time to time, ACAP has published on its roles and activities in scientific journals, scholarly books, in the popular literature and via presentations at scientific conferences (see the list of selected literature below).  Most recently the Agreement has been featured in a two-volume geographic encyclopaedia of the World’s Arctic and Antarctic Regions.

The Action Plan for the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) states in its Article 6 on Education and Public Awareness that:

“The Parties shall seek to make information on the conservation status of albatrosses and petrels, the threats facing them, and the activities taken under the Agreement, available to the scientific, fishing and conservation communities, as well as to relevant local authorities and other decision-makers, and to neighbouring states” (6.1); and

“The Parties shall seek to make local communities and the public in general more aware of the status of albatrosses and petrels and the threats facing them” (6.2).

One of the ways that these two objectives are being achieved is via daily postings to ACAP Latest News on this website, which are then copied to ACAP’s Facebook Page (currently with just below 1900 members).  Since 2006 these research and conservation news stories have covered abstracts of scientific publications, reports of ACAP attendances at meetings of international fishery management organizations with seabird bycatch issues, news of conferences, field trips and alien eradications as well as book reviews, obituaries, grant and employment opportunities and more.

White-phase Southern Giant Petrel in Antarctica, photograph by Michael Dunn

Selected Literature:

Cooper, J. 2006.  Conservation of albatrosses and petrels of the Southern Ocean.  In: Boere, G.C., Galbraith, C. & Stroud, D.A. (Eds).  Waterbirds around the World.  Edinburgh: The Stationary Office.  pp. 113-119.

Cooper, J. 2014.  Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP).  In: Hund, A.J. (Ed.). Antarctica and the Arctic Circle: a Geographic Encyclopedia of the Earth's Polar Regions.  Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.

Cooper, J. & Baker, G.B. 2008. Identifying candidate species for inclusion within the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  Marine Ornithology 36: 1-8.

Cooper, J. & Misiak, W. 2015.  The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels:  a growing resource for information on procellariiform research and conservation.  Second World Seabird Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, October 2015 [submitted abstract].

Cooper, J. & Ryan, P.G. 2014.  Progress with supporting the Albatross and Petrel Agreement on the outer islands of Tristan da Cunha.  Tristan da Cunha Newsletter 54: 32-34.

Cooper, J., Baker, G.B., Double, M.C., Gales, R., Papworth, W, Tasker, M.L. & Waugh, S.M. 2006.  The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels: rationale, history, progress and the way forward.  Marine Ornithology 34: 1-5.

Cooper, J., Morgan, K.H. & Tasker, M.L. 2009.  Listing North Pacific albatrosses within the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  Marine Ornithology 37: 189-191.

Harris, J. 2007.  Albatrosses and Petrels, Agreement for the Conservation of.  In: Riffenburgh, B (Ed.).  Encyclopedia of the Antarctic.  Vol. 1.  New York: Routledge.  pp. 15-17.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 March 2015

Taiaroa Head, at the end of the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin in New Zealand’s South Island, is one of the very few places in the World where the general public can view breeding albatrosses without the need of joining a sea-going expedition.  Globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi have bred at Taiaroa Head, now a nature reserve, since 1938 and it is has become a major tourist attraction.

Northern Royal Albatross and chick at Taiaroa Head, photograph by Lyndon Perriman

In December last year ACAP Latest News reported that 32 eggs had been laid in the 2014/15 season (click here).  The Royal Albatross Centre now informs that 27 chicks are heading towards fledging and “are doing very well, receiving regular feedings from their parents”.

If all 27 chicks fledge then a breeding success of 84% will have been attained for the latest breeding season.

Click here to view a 30-minute film shot in the 1980s on Taiaroa Head’s albatrosses.

The Royal Albatross Centre is operated by the Otago Peninsula Trust and the Department of Conservation.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 March 2015

Martina Müller (Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Japan) and colleagues have published in the journal Animal Behaviour on whether Scopoli’s Shearwater partners stay together at sea.  “We found that partners migrate to similar wintering areas along the coast of Africa.  But they don't seem to be coordinating their movements because they didn't travel together.  So why then do partners migrate to the same places?  We found evidence pointing to inbreeding: individuals breeding closer to each other in the colony tend to be more closely related and also to migrate to similar destinations.”

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Long-term pair bonds occur in diverse animal taxa, but they are most common in birds, and can last from a few years to a lifetime.  In many of these species, after the reproductive season, birds migrate to distant nonbreeding grounds where they remain for several months, and until recently, little was known about whether partners maintain contact during migration.   This gap in knowledge was primarily due to past methodological difficulties in tracking long-term, large-scale movements of individuals. However, the development of new animal-borne geolocation devices has enabled researchers to track movements of individuals for a year or more.  We tracked the annual migrations of both members of breeding pairs of Scopoli's shearwaters,Calonectris diomedea, breeding on Linosa Island (Italy) and found that although they did not migrate together, they did spend a similar number of days travelling to and from similar terminal nonbreeding areas.  Although migration destinations were alike, they were not identical.  That partners did not appear to travel or spend time together in the nonbreeding season suggests that similarities were not due to behavioural coordination.  We performed additional analyses to uncover alternative, potential proximate mechanisms.  First, we found that body mass of breeding adults during the chick-rearing period correlated positively with the decision to migrate further south, so conceivably pair members may migrate to similar areas because of shared reproductive costs; however, partners were not of similar body mass.  Distances between nonbreeding areas for individuals that nested closer together were smaller than for individuals that nested far apart.  As neighbours tend to be more closely related due to high natal philopatry, this suggests that similarities within pairs in migration behaviour may reflect the influence of shared genes on migration strategy.”

A Scopoli's Shearwater gets ready to fledge, photograph by Jacob Gonzalez-Solis

Reference:

Müller, M.S., Massa, B., Phillips, R.A. & Dell'Omo, G. 2015.  Seabirds mated for life migrate separately to the same places: behavioural coordination or shared proximate causes?  Animal Behaviour 102: 267-276.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 February 2015

Graham Parker (Parker Conservation, New Zealand) has reported to ACAP Latest News on contractual field work he has been involved with over the last year on ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels at New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands.

Over July and August last year a winter survey of Grey Petrels Procellaria cinerea was undertaken on Campbell Island on behalf of the Department of Conservation and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).  The key objectives were defining the spatial extent of breeding colonies, estimating colony densities and obtaining an estimate of burrow occupancy.

Graham Parker searches for Grey Petrel burrows on Campbell Island

This was followed by a summer visit back to Campbell and to the Auckland Islands, along with Kalinka Rexer-Huber (PhD student, Department of Zoology, University of Otago) and albatross researcher Paul Sagar, recently retired from NIWA.  On Campbell activities included trialling a boat-based survey of Light-mantled Albatrosses  Phoebetria palpebrata along the island’s coastal cliffs, deploying and retrieving GLS loggers on Southern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea epomophora and attempting to retrieve loggers from Campbell  Thalassarche impavida and Grey-headed T. chrysostoma Albatrosses.

In the Auckland group, a visit to Disappointment Island allowed a mark-recapture study of White-capped Albatrosses T. steadi to be established.  A visit was also paid to Adams Island.

White-capped Albatross on Disappointment Island, photograph by Graham Parker

At all localities visited Kalinka continued to collect information, including on population sizes, on White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis towards her higher degree.  Her thesis research entails addressing tracking, provenance and census gaps for White-chinned Petrels.  "I aim to produce a population estimate for the Auckland Islands, to track individuals at sea and to assess the taxonomic status of New Zealand populations. More broadly, I will evaluate population genetic structure to determine the origin of petrels caught as fisheries bycatch."

White-chinned Petrel on Disappointment Island, photograph by Graham Parker

Graham is clearly keeping busy.  He is now helping with the third year of translocating Vulnerable Pycroft's Petrel Pterodroma pycrofti chicks from Red Mercury Island to 80-ha Motuora Island in the Hauraki Gulf by the Motuora Restoration Society.  Motuora is free of introduced mammals (click here) and thus a suitable site for the establishment of new seabird colonies by translocation, such as an earlier transfer of Common Diving Petrels Pelecanoides urinatrix to the island (click here).

Pycroft's Petrel, photograph by the Motuora Restoration Society

The White-chinned Petrel survey undertaken on Disappointment Island was supported by an award to NIWA from the ACAP Grants Programme in its 2014 round (click here).

With thanks to Graham Parker and Kalinka Rexer-Huber for information and photographs.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 March 2015, updated 13 March 2015