Tracks as on 13 May of juvenile Black-browed Albatrosses fledged from Bird Island in 2023; click here to view the most recent tracks

In a study that commenced in 2021, 26 fledging Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris on Bird Island in the South Atlantic were fitted in April this year with satellite transmitters in a project run by Richard Phillips of the British Antarctic Survey. The main aims of this study are to map the distribution of juvenile birds to determine overlap with fisheries and the main environmental drivers of their movements, and to assess the survival rate of juveniles in the critical months after they fledge.

The young birds are being tracked in near real-time using the Argos system. Nearly all the birds have been taking a north-easterly route towards southern Africa. As of 22 May several have reached the Benguela Current region off the coasts of Namibia and western South Africa. A few have continued into the Indian Ocean on the Agulhas Bank off South Africa’s Western Cape.

A Black-browed Albatross chick shortly to fledge from Bird Island in 2021 awaits its satellite tracker, photograph by James Crymble

“The population of adult albatross have been affected globally by longline and trawler fishing, with birds becoming trapped by fishing equipment, or swallowing baited hooks and plastic waste. However, bycatch of seabirds has been reduced to low levels around [Bird Island] following the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). Bycatch has also been significantly reduced in South African and Namibian fisheries, due to concerted efforts by national fisheries bodies and BirdLife International. However, elsewhere in the Southern hemisphere, bycatch is still a major threat. Little is known about the travel patterns of juvenile and immature black-browed albatrosses, and ringing recoveries suggest they range more widely than the mature adults. The data from this group of recently fledged albatrosses stands to offer important new insights into the early lives of these prolific travellers” (click here). The Bird Island birds belong to one of 10 Priority Populations for conservation identified by ACAP.

A satellite-tracked juvenile Black-browed Albatross off Cape Town, South Africa; photograph by Estelle Smalberger

Intriguingly, one of the 19 juvenile Black-browed Albatrosses tracked in 2021 from Bird Island was photographed at sea off South Africa on 31 July 2021, with its back-mounted transmitter clearly visible (click here).

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 24 May 2023

 Dr Will Lockhart delivers his opening remarks to delegates of the Thirteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC13) confirming the UK's committment to the Agreement and encouraging Parties to work together towards its objectives

Dr Will Lockhart, Deputy Director, International Biodiversity and Wildlife, Department for environment, food and rural affairs welcomed delegates on Monday to ACAP’s Thirteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC13). The four-day meeting is being hosted for the first time by the United Kingdom in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh.

Addressing delegates, Dr Lockhart welcomed Parties and Observers to the meeting and acknowledged the global conservation effort already underway, whilst recognising the challenges still facing ACAP to protect its listed albatross and petrels.

“A huge amount of valuable work is being undertaken across Parties to protect these special birds, “he said. “But many albatross and petrel populations are still as you know in deep crisis. And there is much more we can and should be doing to further support the conservation of these iconic species.”

He confirmed the United Kingdom’s commitment to the Agreement pointing to projects to eradicate rodents at breeding sites and the implementation of strong bycatch mitigation measures in fisheries. 

The meeting commences

Wider conservation efforts were also highlighted, such as the £3 billion the UK has earmarked for spending by 2025, “to protect nature internationally – through bilateral aid, contributions to multilateral aid programmes, or by helping generate new, sustainable and innovative forms of nature finance, including by working with businesses to ensure that they better price their dependencies on nature.”

He encouraged Parties to work together in the spirit of collaboration in order to realise and drive forward the Agreements’ objectives, noting the importance of engaging with the fishing industry.

“Our work can only be successful if we work together. In particular, we need to identify further actions that can be taken to strengthen collaboration with Regional Fisheries Management Organizations and CCAMLR, both of which are critical to the success of the Agreement, or to ensure that data collection can be improved so that the scale of bycatch and other pressures on ACAP species can be better understood and mitigated. We also need to drive our wider governments to make sure that they are living up to their commitments under the Agreement and doing our best to implement the best practices we develop in collaboration with each other. “

23 May 2023

A displaying ACAP-listed Tristan Albatross on Gough Island; photograph by Michelle Risi

‘From Agreement to Action: Build Back Biodiversity” is the theme for this year’s International Biodiversity Day, a sentiment that will be forefront in the minds of delegates of the Thirteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC13) who gather today in Edinburgh to commence the week-long round of talks.

In 2019, ACAP's Advisory Committee declared a conservation crisis for its listed albatrosses and petrels, with fisheries operations, particularly longline and trawler fishing, identified as the biggest threat facing these magnificent birds. Although albatrosses and petrels face other threats including introduced predators, diseases and plastic ingestion, thousands continue to die every year from entanglements in fishing gear, or swallowing baited hooks and drowning.

ACAP has developed a comprehensive range of Best Practice Advice guidelines and factsheets containing proven mitigation measures that can be implemented by ACAP Parties, non-Party Range States and, critically, Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) to reduce seabird bycatch. Uptake of these proven measures remains low, and engagement with stakeholders such as RFMOs is essential to improve population trends of ACAP species. 

The challenge facing the Advisory Committee this week may well be finding the route to move beyond agreement of the conservation crisis facing these birds to tangible action that will assist ACAP in its objective to achieve and maintain a favourable conservation status for its listed species.

22 May 2023

Black-vented Shearwater at sea, photograph by Madeleine Claire

Cecilia Soldatini (Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Unidad La Paz, Mexico) and colleagues have published in the journal Science of The Total Environment on the diving behaviour of the Near Threatened Black-vented Shearwater Puffinus opisthomelas utilizing GPS and accelerometers.

The publication's graphical abstract

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Oceanic mesoscale systems are characterized by inherent variability. Climatic change adds entropy to this system, making it a highly variable environment in which marine species live. Being at the higher levels of the food chain, predators maximize their performance through plastic foraging strategies. Individual variability within a population and the possible repeatability across time and space may provide stability in a population facing environmental changes. Therefore, variability and repeatability of behaviors, particularly diving behavior, could play an important role in understanding the adaptation pathway of a species. This study focuses on characterizing the frequency and timing of different dives (termed simple and complex) and how these are influenced by individual and environmental characteristics (sea surface temperature, chlorophyll a concentration, bathymetry, salinity, and Ekman transport). This study is based on GPS and accelerometer-recorded information from a breeding group of 59 Black-vented Shearwater and examine consistency in diving behavior at both individual and sex levels across four different breeding seasons. The species was found to be the best performing free diver in the Puffinus genus with a maximum dive duration of 88 s. Among the environmental variables assessed, a relationship was found with active upwelling conditions enhancing low energetic cost diving, on the contrary, reduced upwelling and warmer superficial waters induce more energetically demanding diving affecting diving performance and ultimately body conditions. The body conditions of Black-vented Shearwaters in 2016 were worse than in subsequent years, in 2016, deepest and longest complex dives were recorded, while simple dives were longer in 2017–2019. Nevertheless, the species' plasticity allows at least part of the population to breed and feed during warmer events. While carry-over effects have already been reported, the effect of more frequent warm events is still unknown.”

Reference:

Soldatini, C., Rosas Hernandez, M.P., Albores-Barajas, Y.V., Catoni, C., Ramos, A., Dell'Omo. G., Rattenborg, N. & Chimienti, M. 2023. Individual variability in diving behavior of the Black-vented Shearwater in an ever-changing habitat. Science of The Total Environment 883.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163286.

19 May 2023