The South Atlantic Ocean bird

Participants on a 'pelagic' (seabird watching) trip out of Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania, Australia on 28 May observed two juvenile Wandering Albatrosses at a berley (chumming) point, both carrying leg bands.  “Thanks to the raft of excellent photographers on board, clear band details were obtained”.

Enquiries confirmed both birds are Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea. exulans.  Bird R63 corresponds with metal band 4012558 and is from Bird Island, South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)* in the South Atlantic.  It was banded on its nest on 27 August 2021.  The parent bird laid the egg on 23 December 2020, egg weighing 515 grams.  The egg hatched on 11 March 2021 and the chick fledged on 16 December 2021.  The parent birds of this bienially breeding species had previously bred over 2018/19.

The bird carrying BS34819 was banded close to fledging on 20 September 2021 on its nest on France’s Île de la Possession, Crozet Islands in the southern Indian Ocean by the CNRS Banding Organization.

The southern Indian Ocean bird

With thanks to Karen Dick.  Photographs from Richard Webber, details from the Seabirds and Pelagics Australia Facebook page.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 June 2022

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

The May 2022 wounded Wandering Albatross chick

South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean is one of only three known islands where introduced House Mice are known to have taken to attacking and killing albatrosses – the other two being Gough in the South Atlantic and Midway in the North Pacific.  Attacks by mice were first observed on Marion in 2003, with chicks of the Vulnerable Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans being the target.  Since then, the three other albatross species and three of the island’s petrel assemblage that breed on the island have been definitely affected, including attacks directed at adults for some of them.  As a consequence, the Mouse-Free Marion Project is working towards eradicating the island’s mice in 2024 by an aerial drop of poison bait.

Another view of the same bird; photographs by Lucy Smyth

Researchers based on the island continue to make observations of mouse attacks on birds; the latest being of a downy Wandering Albatross chick showing a wound on its right flank caused by mice.  The bird was photographed on 26 May by ornithological field assistant Lucy Smyth in the Goney Plain long-term monitoring colony for Wanderers, first set up in the mid-1980s; one of three on Marion’s east coast.  The observation confirming mouse attacks are continuing on the island supports the necessity of removing the mice as soon as is feasible.

With thanks to Maëlle Connan.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 June 2022

Jaime Ramos and Leonel Pereira have co-edited a book with the title Seabird Biodiversity and Human Activities to be published this month.  The book has 15 chapters by different authors.  Click on the chapter titles listed below to view their authorships and read their individual abstracts.

ACAP Latest News intends to feature selected chapters of special interest to the Albatross and Petrel Agreement once the book has been published.

The book’s overall abstract follows:

“Seabirds are global travellers connecting oceans and seas all over the world, and facing multiple threats at local and global scales. Seabirds are long-lived top predators, reflecting changes at lower trophic levels, and are good models to assess ecological changes produced by human societies. Thus, world-wide collaborations are needed to understand seabird ecology and to develop effective conservation measures benefitting both humans and seabird populations.

This book provides a modern overview on seabird biodiversity studies: it begins by covering the most up-to-date techniques to study seabirds, and then focus on pragmatic issues related with interactions between seabirds and humans, the use of seabirds as ecological indicators and conservation of seabirds. It gives an updated insight on all these topics and highlights gaps that need further development for a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between seabirds and human actions.

This book covers the response of the seabird research community to a biodiversity crisis aiming to contribute towards environmental sustainability. It should provide inspiration to a wide range of professionals and students, including the much needed world-wide collaboration between research groups and practitioners. In this way seabird research and conservation provide an inspiration for the solution of global issues such as climate change.”

Table of Contents

An Introduction to Seabirds and Their Study

Conventional and Modern Approaches to Study Seabird Trophic Ecology and Diet

A Physiological Toolbox to Explore the Relationships Between Seabirds and Their Changing Environments

Tracking Seabirds for Conservation and Marine Spatial Planning

Seabird and Fisheries Interactions

Urban Gulls with Humans

Seabirds and Marine Renewable Energy Sources

Seabirds and Biotoxins

Seabirds as Indicators of Forage Fish Stocks

Seabirds as Indicators of Oceanographic Changes

Seabirds as Indicators of Metal and Plastic Pollution

Antarctic Seabirds as Indicators of Climate Change

Light Pollution as a Seabirds' Conservation Threat

Eradication and Control of Invasive Mammal Species as a Seabird Conservation Tool

Identifying and Establishing Marine Protected Areas Worldwide

Reference:

Ramos, J.A. & Pereira, L. (Eds) 2022.  Seabird Biodiversity and Human Activities.  Boca Raton: CRC Press.  270 pp.  doi.org/10.1201/9781003047520.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 02 June 2022

UPDATE:

The Tristan da Cunha Marine Protection Zone came into force on 10 August 2021 when promulgated in the MARINE PROTECTION (TRISTAN DA CUNHA) ORDINANCE, 2021.

"An ORDINANCE to make provision for the protection of the marine waters of Tristan da Cunha; to declare a Marine Protection Zone and provide for the adoption of a Marine Management Plan; and for connected or incidental purposes."

The Ordinance confirms that fishing by bottom trawling in any area within the fishery limits is prohibited.  This will also apply to the four Seamount Fishing Zones (defined areas shallower than 3000 metres).

Witht thanks to Jonathon Hall, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK

The Tristan da Cunha Marine Protection Zone, map from the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project

A 687 247-km² Marine Protection Zone (MPZ) with no fishing or other extractive activities permitted within 91% of its total area has been announced around the Tristan – Gough Islands in the South Atlantic by the Island Council of Tristan da Cunha.  The island group forms part of the United Kingdom’s Overseas Territory of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.  Sustainable fishing will be permitted in the local waters of the islands by the Tristan community (commercial Tristan Rock Lobster fishery, subsistence fin fishing) and on parts of four seamounts.  Information received by ACAP Latest News is that benthic trawling will be banned within the MPZ, including over those portions of the seamounts where sustainable fishing will be allowed and that 100% observer coverage will be required on licensed vessels.  Formal legislation for the MPZ is to follow in 2021 (click here).

The Tristan MPZ becomes the world’s 11th largest marine protected area (MPA) according to the World Database on Protected Areas compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (click here) and is also stated to be the "the fourth-largest fully protected marine reserve on the planet".  The declaration comes out of a commitment made by the UK Government in 2016 to establish "Blue Belt" protection for four million square kilometres of ocean around its Overseas Territories (UKOTs) by 2020.  It follows from a number of workshops, meetings and marine research (including seabird surveys) conducted within Tristan's 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The territorial waters and EEZ around the islands of Gough, Inaccessible, Nightingale (with its islets of Middle and Stoltenhoff) and Tristan that form the group support large breeding seabird populations, including of six ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels.  Three of these are endemic to the island group; one of them, the Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena, is especially at risk of extinction from attacks by introduced House Mice on Gough (click here).

|An incubating Tristan Albatross on Gough Island, photograph by Kalinka Rexer-Huber

These six ACAP species are not restricted to the new MPZ in their foraging ranges, travelling over much of the South Atlantic and beyond in international waters - where they remain at risk to fisheries bycatch.  Nevertheless, they will now be fully protected from bycatch by fiushing vessels while within the "no take" part of the MPZ.  It is stated that satellite surveillance will help to detect any Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activity and that “the UK has a duty to protect the wildlife found in all of its Territories and will be responsible for long-term monitoring and enforcement of this vast Zone”.

The Tristan da Cunha Marine Protection Zone follows on from similar large MPAs declared by the UK Government around  Ascension,  British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago, disputed by Mauritius), Pitcairn Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur)*.  With the Tristan MPZ these MPAs total some 3.84 million square kilometres (click here).

With thanks to Antje Steinfurth.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 November 2020, updated 01 June 2022

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.