Laysan Albatrosses, coloured pencils, by ABUN artist Tatiana Petrova for World Albatross Day 2022

As previously announced, the Seventh Session of the Meeting of Parties to the Agreement (MoP7) will be held virtually over 9-13 May 2022, with Australia acting as meeting host and Chair.  Further information is now available in a second circular that gives details on timing and dates, technical arrangements, ad hoc meeting guidelines and registering.

MoP7 will begin with a Heads of Delegation meeting.  An Annotated Provisional Agenda is available (MoP7 Doc 02) as are other Meeting Documents and Information Papers that will be considered at the meeting.

As was the case with the 12th Meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC12), Congress Rental has been chosen to manage the technical aspects of the meeting, which will use the Interprefy platform.

Prospective participants should register by 15 April.  A registration form is available from here.

French and Spanish versions of Circular No. 2, meeting documents and the registration form are also available.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 March 2022

Three OVAPD workers construct a bird-scaring line as BirdLife South Africa's Reason Nyengera looks on; photograph from the Albatross Task Force

Reason Nyengera, Albatross Task Force Project Manager, BirdLife South Africa reports that over 1000 bird-scaring lines have been supplied by the ATF to vessels that fish within South African waters.

He writes: “Each year thousands of seabirds are accidentally killed while foraging behind fishing vessels in the world’s oceans.  One of the most efficient solutions to reduce seabird bycatch is to use a device known as a bird-scaring line (BSL), or tori line, to deter birds from entering the danger zone behind fishing vessels.  One of the cornerstones of our work is to provide cost-effective, efficient and science-based seabird bycatch mitigation measures to the South African fishing industry, and ensuring that all vessels are equipped with BSLs is an integral part of this mission.  A collaborative BSL-manufacturing project has been initiated between BirdLife South Africa and the Ocean View Association for Persons with Disabilities (OVAPD), a registered non-profit institution that provides people with disabilities from in and around the local community with a place where they can interact, learn skills and make a small income.”

A bird-scaring line flutters above a longline; photograph by Domingo Jimenez

Funding to purchase raw materials for the manufacture of BSLs has been funded by Rand Merchant Bank over the last decade.

“Since the beginning of this collaborative project we have supplied more than 1000 BSLs, effectively equipping 60% of the [South African] vessels that interact with seabirds.  The BSLs in South Africa have directly contributed to a 99% reduction in the deaths of albatrosses in the demersal hake trawl fishery and an 85% reduction in seabird mortality in one of our longline fisheries.  Since its inception, the project has prevented the deaths of approximately 58 000 seabirds in the South African trawl fisheries alone.  And 58 people with disabilities gain technical life skills, socio-economic welfare and upliftment every year through it.”

Read the original news story here and access earlier related posts to ACAP Latest News on the subject.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 March 2022

Waved Albatross at sea; photograph by Ken Logan

Carlos Moreno (Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Peru) and Javier Quiñones have published in the open-access journal Marine Ornithology on albatrosses and petrels associated with an artisanal squid fishery off Peru.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“We report on the occurrence of albatrosses (Diomedeidae) and petrels (Procellariidae) associated with an artisanal small-scale fishery (SSF) for Humboldt Squid Dosidicus gigas in waters of southern Peru during El Niño 2015-2016 and coastal El Niño 2017. We deployed as observers on a number of fishing trips to assess seabird interactions. White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis and Waved Albatross Phoebastria irroata were the most abundant species observed, followed by Salvin's Thalassarche salvini and Chatham albatross T. eremita, and Cape Petrels Daption capense. The majority of procellariid species (> 60% of total birds) visited while vessels were positioned over the continental slope. Salvin's and Chatham albatross, and White-chinned Petrels, were mostly absent during summer (only 5% and 15% of birds present, respectively), but Waved Albatross and Cape Petrels were present year-round. Thus, the prevalence of each of these species was disproportionate relative to expectation based on non-fishery surveys. All assessed species foraged on offal discards associated with the fishery (~17%), with a higher frequency of consumption among Salvin's (27%) and Chatham (21%) albatross; in contrast, Waved Albatross largely fed on pelagic fish at the surface. Bycatch rate was found to be low: one Chatham Albatross was hooked and released in a hand-held squid jig (0.042 By Catch Per Unit Effort [BPUE] per fishing trip, n = 16). Probably due to El Niño conditions, Waved Albatross were more abundant than expected (43.9% of albatross, and 2.8% of total seabirds observed) and were 1 300-1 400 km farther south than their usual southern limits. We report the first sighting of Southern Royal Albatross Diomedea epomophora in Peru. Bycatch in longline fisheries are a conservation concern, but the magnitude and constant growth of SSFs, especially for Humboldt Squid, needs to be further investigated.”

Reference:

Moreno, c. & Quiñones, J. 2022.  Albatross and petrel interactions with an artisanal squid fishery in southern Peru during El Niño, 2015-2017.  Marine Ornithology 50: 49-56.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 March 2022

Spectacled Petrel by Lea Finke of ABUN for ACAP, charcoal, chalk and sanguine; after a photograph by Peter Ryan

Note: The illustrated Species Summaries have been written to help inform the genera public, including school learners, of the biology and conservation needs of the 31 ACAP-listed species.  They serve to complement the more detailed and referenced ACAP Species Assessments.  To date, summaries for the 22 species of albatrosses have been produced in in all three ACAP official languages, English, French and Spanish.

Texts have also been prepared for the nine ACAP-listed petrels and shearwaters in English, but as yet have not been translated into French and Spanish.  As an interim service, the illustrated English texts are being posted to ACAP Latest News, continuing here with the Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata.

Spectacled Petrel on Inaccessible Island; photograph by Peter Ryan

The Spectacled Petrel is one of five medium-to-large petrels within the genus Procellaria, along with the Black, Grey, Westland and White-chinned.  Among all the petrels and shearwaters in the family Procellariidae, they are the largest that dig and breed in burrows.

The species is essentially all dark brown to black save for conspicuous white markings on the head, giving the bird its name, as well as its local name of ‘Ringeye’.  The bill is yellowish but with a darker tip than its close relative, the White-chinned Petrel.  Spectacled Petrels breed only on the plateau of uninhabited Inaccessible Island (12.65 km²), part of the United Kingdom Overseas Territory of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic.  It may have bred on Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean in the past, but like several other species, was extirpated there following the introduction of several mammals to the island.  The petrel’s current at-sea distribution is largely confined to the South Atlantic with birds regularly reaching the continental waters of Brazil and southern Africa, although the few records in the southern Indian Ocean extend to Australia.

The most recent survey of numbers on Inaccessible Island, made in 2018, resulted in an estimate of 30 000 breeding pairs, reflecting a steady increase since at least the 1930s following the disappearance of introduced pigs.  The species breeds in burrows in wet heath, bogfern heath and locally in Phylica woodland from 250 to 500 m above sea level, laying a single white egg and rearing the single chick through the austral summer. Diet is primarily squid, as well as crustaceans and fish, taken from the sea surface or by shallow dives.

Past threats included feral pigs on Inaccessible, extirpated in the early 20th century; the island is now free of introduced mammals.  Currently, birds are killed by longline fisheries, notably of the coast of Brazil, but not at a rate to halt the ongoing population increase.  Despite this, the Spectacled Petrel’s single breeding site means it retains a conservation category of Vulnerable.  Introduction of rodents (present on the inhabited island of Tristan da Cunha 37 km away) remains a potential threat that needs to be continuously guarded against from landings, fishing vessels and shipwrecks.  Adoption of ‘best practice’ mitigation measures by longline fisheries in both national and international waters, including deployment of bird-scaring lines, line weighting and night setting, will reduce at-sea mortalities.

Inaccessible Island and its territorial waters are a nature reserve declared by the Tristan da Cunha Government in 1997, a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance (from 2008), and with Gough Island a natural World Heritage Site since 2004.  Both islands have a combined management plan which controls landings by researchers and tourists.  In 2021 a Marine Protected Area extending to the edge of the 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone is due to be formally declared around Inaccessible and the other islands of the Tristan-Gough group.

Sources:

ACAP 2012.  Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata.

BirdLife International 2021.  Species factsheet: Procellaria conspicillata.

Ryan, P.G., Dilley, B.J. & Ronconi, R.A. 2019.  Population trends of Spectacled Petrels Procellaria conspicillata and other seabirds at Inaccessible Island.  Marine Ornithology 47: 257-265.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 March 2022