The Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus pair on Eastern Island, part of the USA’s Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the North Pacific, has fledged its third chick in four years since commencing egg-laying in the 2010/2011 breeding season.

Other than the female-female pair on Kure Atoll that lay infertile eggs (click here) the Midway birds are the only breeding Short-tails outside islands belonging to Japan (noting that ownership of one locality is disputed).

A Midway Short-tailed Albatross, photograph by Dan Clark 

Click here to access earlier reports in ACAP Latest News on Midway’s now-famous Short-tailed Albatrosses.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 June 2014

The Mail & Guardian, a South African weekly newspaper, has for the past decade been making annual environmental awards to deserving individuals and bodies in South Africa.  The “Greening the Future” awards embrace technological innovations and forward-thinking green technologies that help combat climate change, encourage renewable energy and foster the strategic management of natural resources.  Annual awards are given in 10 categories.

This year BirdLife South Africa’s Albatross Task Force’s has taken first prize in the ‘Green Technology’ category for its work reducing seabird mortality in a South African trawl fishery, previously described in ACAP Latest News (click here).  The award was made at a ceremony held this week in Johannesburg.

Best practice: twin bird-scaring lines set behind this South African trawler keep Black-browed Albatrosses away  from colliding with the warp cables

Photograph by Barry Watkins

The award follows an international award made to the task force when Bronwyn Maree, the ATF Team Leader in South Africa, travelled to The Netherlands to receive her ‘Future for Nature Award’ (click here).

Selected Literature:

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 doi:10.1111/acv.12126.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 June 2014

In November last year the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) hosted a Technical Workshop for the Implementation of Measures to Reduce Seabird Bycatch in IOTC Longline Fisheries, held in Busan, Korea (click here).  The Albatross and Petrel Agreement was represented by Anton Wolfaardt, Convenor of its Seabird Bycatch Working Group.  Both ACAP and BirdLife International made presentations to the workshop on seabird bycatch and mitigation measures.

The report of the workshop (IOTC–2013–SBWS02–R) is now available on the home page of the IOTC website.  The workshop considered the best-practice mitigation measures of night-setting, line weighting and utilization of bird-scaring lines.

Night setting is a best-practice mitigation measure

At the 18th Session of the Commission, held earlier this month in Colombo, Sri Lanka, it was agreed that CPCs (Contracting Parties and Cooperating non-Contracting Parties to the IOTC) who had had done already done so should adopt National Plans of Action - Seabirds and report on progress to its Working Party on Ecosystems and Bycatch (WPEB).  The 10th Meeting of the WPEB will be held in Tokyo, Japan over 27 to 31 October this year (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 June 2014

Despite valiant efforts to eradicate them World-wide, rodents continue to threaten seabirds at their breeding islands, with the House Mice Mus musculus of Gough and Marion Islands that attack albatross and burrowing petrel chicks being significant examples (click here).  New Zealand has been a World leader in successfully eradicating introduced rodents from islands, now to be recognized at a one-day symposium to be held in Auckland this September (click here).

Sooty Albatross chick killed by House Mice on Gough Island, photograph by Paul Visser

“In 2014 New Zealand celebrates 50 years of rodent eradications, following the confirmation of successful eradication of Norway Rats [Rattus norvegicus] from Maria Island in 1964 by the  with assistance from Don Merton, and a grant of 5 pounds from the Wildlife Service.  At that time only 0.5% of New Zealand’s islands were predator-free but today that percentage has increased to 10%, due to the pioneering efforts of staff in the NZ Wildlife Service and then Department of Conservation, supported by volunteers and community groups.  Much has changed in those fifty years, including the landmark use of helicopters to deliver bait aerially, and the knowledge export of rodent eradications to other islands across the globe.

To celebrate these 50 years the Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity, University of Auckland and partners are hosting a symposium on rodent eradications to be held 10 September 2014 at the University of Auckland.  The full-day symposium will consist of a series of talks by those involved at the time in pioneering eradications, presenting a retrospective of the eradication operation at the time, the benefits to the island today, and looking forward to the future of island conservation and rodent eradication.  Registration is free and the symposium will be accessible to a general audience.”

Click here to register.

For a brief history of rodent eradications in New Zealand click here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 June 2014