A Vulnerable ACAP-listed White-chinned Petrel at sea; photograph by Peter Ryan

ACAP is passionate about conserving the albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters listed under our Agreement but as we, here at the Secretariat, spend the majority of our time behind a computer rather than a camera in our efforts to conserve these majestic birds, we are asking for your help.

If you would be happy to contribute photos or video of any ACAP-listed species and their breeding localities for use across our platforms to help highlight the conservation crisis facing these birds, the ACAP Secretariat would be delighted to hear from you. All media will be credited when used by the Agreement.

A list of the Agreement's 31 listed species and their breeding localities can be found at the ACAP website under the menu bar item, Resources.

If you are interested and would like to find out more information, please contact ACAP, here.

22 December 2023

Mike Harris with an Atlantic Puffin on the Isle of May, photograph by Keith Brockie

Well-known and highly regarded marine ornithologist Mike Harris passed away on 17 December after a short illness, at the age of 84.  Originally from Wales, where he earned his PhD on gulls, Emeritus Professor Michael Philip Harris was a long-time (since 1972) researcher based at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in Scotland.  He is known for his many studies on a wide range of seabirds, notably the Vulnerable Atlantic Puffin Fratercula arctica, the subject of two books he wrote, the first in 1984, the second in 2011 co-authored with his wife and fellow seabird researcher, Sarah Wanless.  Research Gate lists him as having an impressive 328 publications with 15 216 citations.  His latest publication, co-authored in the prestigious journal Evolution, was published as recently as October.

During his early career Mike travelled to The Galapagos in the 1960s to undertake ecological research on a wide range of seabirds, notably on two species of storm petrels, but also including on the Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata, with several pioneering publications ensuing on this now Critically Endangered species, as listed below.

We went on a field trip together in (I think) December 1976, visiting Langebaan Lagoon and overnighting on Marcus Island in Saldanha Bay on South Africa’s west coast.  I was then trying to set up a long-term study colony of African Penguins Spheniscus demersus, and it was good to get Mike’s advice.  Sadly, the now Endangered penguin has all but deserted the island, due to a continuing decline in its overall population size, caused primarily by overfishing.  His 1974 A Field Guide to the Birds of the Galapagos has long been in my study library.  Getting it out now I see he signed it for me “with many thanks for a great time”.  Other meetings followed at international seabird conferences over the years.

A previous Scottish colleague of mine at the University of Cape Town’s FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Mike Fraser, writes of Mike Harris’ passing: “A huge loss to the seabird research fraternity and, in particular, the Isle of May community where he knew every Puffin by its first name!  He was certainly well travelled (including, of course, South Africa) and was an outstanding field man.  He was a good pal and it’s hard to think he’s gone.”

Mike Harris justly received many accolades during his long career.  His citation for the British Ornithologists’ Union Godman-Salvin Medal, awarded to him in 2006 and published in the journal Ibis, is an impressive account of a productive career.

The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels extends its sympathies to Sarah, and his family, friends and colleagues.  He will be missed.

With thanks to Mike Fraser.

Selected bibliography

Harris, M.P. 1969.  Breeding seasons of sea-birds in the Galapagos Islands.  Journal of Zoology, London 159: 145–165.

Harris, M.P. 1973.  The biology of the Waved albatross Diomedea irrorata of Hood Island, Galapagos.  Ibis 115: 483-510.

Harris, M.P. 1979.  Survival and ages of first breeding of Galapagos seabirds.  Bird-Banding 50: 56-61.

Harris, M.P. & Batchelor, A.L. 1980.  Seabird records from the Lindblad Explorer in the South Atlantic, 1976-1978.  Marine Ornithology 8: 59-64.

Jiménez-Uzcátegui, G., Harris, M.P., Sevilla, C.R., & Huyvaert, K.P. 2016.  Longevity records for the Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata.  Marine Ornithology 44: 133-134.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 21 December 2023

Lima Cathedral in Peru. Photograph by Cristian Loayza

The Fourteenth Meeting of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatross and Petrel's Advisory Committee (AC14) will be held in Lima, Peru, from 12 to 16 August 2024.

Meeting Circular 1, which has been released and is available online, contains information on the meeting location and dates, meeting agenda, submission of documents, applications for Observer status.

Meetings of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group, and the Population and Conservation Status Working Group will precede AC14, SBWG12 from Monday 5 to Wednesday 7 August, and PaCSWG8 on Friday 9 August. 

A joint SBWG12/PaCSWG8 meeting will be held on Thursday 8 August, to discuss cross-cutting issues. The working group meetings will be preceded by a Workshop on seabird bycatch data and at-sea threat prioritisation, to be held on Sunday 4 August. 

A Heads of Delegation meeting will be convened on Sunday 11 August in the late afternoon/evening. The time for this meeting will be advised closer to the meeting date.

The deadlines for the submission and distribution of meeting documents for AC14 and the Working Group meetings, and deadlines for submission of requests for Observer status to attend AC14 can be found in Meeting Circular 1, here. French and Spanish versions are also available at the website.

Further details such as information on the venue and hotel(s), and information on registration will be provided in subsequent Ciculars. 

20 December 2023

A Flesh-footed Shearwater in flight, photograph by Mike Double

Joseph Hollis (Bird Group, Natural History Museum, Tring, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution on using automated image analysis to study a collection of 3793 plastic fragments ingested by Near Threatened Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes on Lord Howe Island.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Plastics are now ubiquitous in the environment and have been studied in wildlife and in ecosystems for more than 50 years. Measurement of size, shape and colour data for individual fragments of plastic is labour-intensive, unreliable and prone to observer bias, particularly when it comes to assessment of colour, which relies on arbitrary and inconsistently defined colour categorisations. There is a clear need for a standard method for data collection on plastic pollution, particularly one that can be readily automated given the number of samples involved.

This study describes a new method for standardised photography of marine plastics in the 1–100 mm size range (meso- and macro-plastics), including colour correction to account for any image-to-image variation in lighting that may impact colour reproduction or apparent brightness. Automated image analysis is then applied to detect individual fragments of plastic for quantitative measurement of size, shape, and colour.

The method was tested on 3793 fragments of debris ingested by Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Ardenna carneipes) on Lord Howe Island, Australia, and compare results from photos taken in two separate locations using different equipment. Photos were acquired of up to 250 fragments at a time with a spatial resolution of 70 μm/pixel and were colour-corrected using a reference chart to ensure accurate reproduction of colour. The automated image analysis pipeline was found to have a 98% success rate at detecting fragments, and the different size and shape parameters that can be outputted by the pipeline were compared in terms of usefulness.

The evidence shown in this study should strongly encourage the uptake of this method for cataloguing macro-scale plastic pollution, as it provides substantially higher quality data with accurate, reliable measurements of size, shape and colour for individual plastics that can be readily compared between disparate datasets.”

Reference:

Hollis, J.R., Henderson, G, Lavers, J.L., Rea, E., Komyakova, V. & Bond, A.L. 2023.  Quantitative photography for rapid, reliable measurement of marine macro-plastic pollution.  Methods in Ecology and Evolution. doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.14267.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 19 December 2023