Laysan Albatrosses on Midway Atoll; the USA supports 97% of the global population

US Congressmen Alan Lowenthal (Democrat, California) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Republican, Pennsylvania) have once more introduced a bipartisan bill to the House of Representatives  - this time on 22 June just three days after World Albatross Day - to enable the United States to become a Party to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.

The full press release from the office of Congressman Alan Lowenthal follows:

“Congressman Alan Lowenthal (CA-47) and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), today, joined by 20 House colleagues, introduced legislation to protect imperiled seabirds from international fishing threats while increasing ongoing seabird conservation efforts in the United States and abroad.

The Albatross and Petrel Conservation Act would implement the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), an international conservation agreement that has been signed by 13 member countries since 2001 and covers 31 species of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters. Despite previous calls by President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama to ratify the agreement, the Senate has yet to vote on the agreement.

“This is a critical opportunity for the United States to resume its leadership role in international conservation efforts,” Congressman Lowenthal said. “It is vital that we implement the ACAP to encourage other nations to adopt strong conservation standards and also in order to take steps to ensure that foreign fishing vessels follow international conservation measures that protect endangered seabirds.”

Many albatross and petrel species are listed among the most threatened seabirds in the world because of habitat loss and fisheries bycatch (unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing for a different species), but the U.S. has been a leader in reducing fisheries bycatch.

“Serving as good stewards of our environment and working to ensure endangered species can be protected and repopulated is something each of us are called to regardless of location, background or political ideology,” Congressman Fitzpatrick said. “This bill will help reduce habitat destruction, minimize marine debris, and slow the spread of invasive species. I’m proud to stand with my colleagues in support of this bipartisan legislation and urge others to join us in the defense of endangered species.”

The Albatross and Petrel Conservation Act ties together existing U.S. laws and statutes without substantially changing current laws in order to implement the international agreement.

The legislation would also authorize the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to implement fisheries conservation measures, increase international fisheries enforcement, restore habitat, reduce non-native species, develop educational programs, and cooperate internationally on conservation efforts.”

Congressman Lowenthal has made two previous attempts in 2016 and 2019 during earlier administrations to have an Albatross and Petrel Conservation Act passed (click here).

 Read the full text of the 2021 bill to enable the Albatross and Petrel Conservation Act.

Read earlier and current reporting by the National Audubon Society on the efforts by the USA to become a Party to ACAP.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 June 2021

Ready to fledge: a translocated Black-footed Albatross rests betweem two adult decoys; photograph by Leilani Fowlke, Pacific Rim Conservation

The first Black-footed Albatross Phoebastria nigripes (Near Threatened) of the current cohort of translocated and hand-reared chicks fledged from the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on the Hawaiian island of Oahu on the morning of 19 June – World Albatross Day.  The previous year’s cohort also fledged its first on 19 June!

“This is the fifth, and final year of Black-footed Albatross translocations in the hope of establishing a new colony on an island safe from predicted sea level rise.”

Read more about the translocation programme in ACAP Latest News and here.

Meanwhile over on Mexico’s Isla Guadalupe, the first translocated Black-footed Albatross fledged just a few days before last Saturday’s World Albatross Day (click here).

The James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge may not be the first locality on Oahu where Black-footed Albatrosses commence breeding.  It might be in the Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve as early as next year (click here).

News from the Facebook page of Pacific Rim Conservation.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 June 2021

Wandering Albatross by Grace Innemee 

Florian Orgeret (Marine Apex Predator Research Unit, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa) and colleagues have published in the Journal of Animal Ecology on tracking globally Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses at sea from Marion and Possession Islands’

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Sexual competition is increasingly recognized as an important selective pressure driving species distributions. However, few studies have investigated the relative importance of inter- vs. intrapopulation competition in relation to habitat availability and selection.

To explain spatial segregation between sexes that often occurs in non-territorial and central place foragers, such as seabirds, two hypotheses are commonly used. The ‘competitive exclusion’ hypothesis states that dominant individuals should exclude subordinate individuals through direct competition whereas the ‘niche divergence’ hypothesis states that segregation occurs due to past competition and habitat specialization.

We tested these hypotheses in two populations of an extreme wide-ranging and sexually dimorphic seabird, investigating the relative role of intrapopulation and interpopulation competition in influencing sex specific distribution and habitat preferences.

Using GPS loggers, we tracked 192 wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans during four consecutive years (2016-2019), from two neighbouring populations in the Southern Ocean (Prince Edward and Crozet archipelagos). We simulated pseudo-tracks to create a null spatial distribution and used Kernel Density Estimates (KDE) and Resource Selection Functions (RSF) to distinguish the relative importance of within vs. between population competition.

KDE showed that only intrapopulation sexual segregation was significant for each monitoring year, and that tracks between the two colonies resulted in greater overlap than expected from the null distribution, especially for the females. RSF confirmed these results and highlighted key at-sea foraging areas, even if the estimated of at-sea densities were extremely low. These differences in selected areas between sites and sexes were, however, associated with high interannual variability in habitat preferences, with no clear specific preferences per site and sex.

Our results suggest that even with low at-sea population densities, historic intrapopulation competition in wide-ranging seabirds may have led to sexual dimorphism and niche specialization, favouring the ‘niche divergence’ hypothesis. In this study, we provide a protocol to study competition within as well as between populations of central place foragers. This is relevant for understanding their distribution patterns and population regulation, which could potentially improve management of threatened populations.”

Reference:

Orgeret, F., Reisinger, R.R., Carpenter-Kling, T., Keys, D.Z., Corbeau, A., Bost, C.-A., Weirmerskirch, H. & Pistorius, P.A. 2021.  Spatial segregation in a sexually-dimorphic central place forager: competitive exclusion or niche divergence?  Journal of Animal Ecology doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13552.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 June 2021

Still at risk from longlines: a breeding Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans on Bird Island in the South Atlantic

Martin Collins (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK) and colleagues have published in the journal Marine Policy on the history of mitigating the impact on seabirds of a longline fishery for Patagonian Toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides in the South Atlantic.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Seabird mortality in fisheries is a global problem and a major driver of the continued decline of many seabird populations. Unless appropriate mitigation is in place, longline fishing can cause high levels of seabird mortality. Here we describe the development and implementation of seabird mitigation measures in the Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides fishery around the sub-Antarctic islands of South Georgia (CCAMLR Subarea 48.3), since the fishery began in the late 1980s. The initial high bycatch mortality (>5000 birds / 0.59 birds per 1000 hooks in 1996) has been reduced to negligible levels (<0.01 per 1000 hooks) through implementation of a suite of mitigation measures and a high level of compliance. The principal species killed in the fishery were black-browed albatross and white-chinned petrels, with most of the mortality occurring in April and early May. Whilst the synchronous introduction of much of the mitigation makes it is difficult to confirm which measures have been most effective, there is compelling evidence that the restriction of the fishery to the austral winter was a major factor. Night-setting and line-weighting measures have also been important in reducing mortality and the 100% observer coverage in the fishery has encouraged high levels of compliance. We also consider how different measures may be effective for different species and how novel measures, such as the use of marked hooks, have helped encourage compliance. The mitigation measures developed in the South Georgia fishery have subsequently been adopted in other CCAMLR fisheries and have helped guide global best practice in addressing seabird bycatch.”

With thanks to Richard Phillips, British Antarctic Survey.

Reference:

Collins, M.A., Hollyman, P.R., Clark J., Soeffker, M., Yates, O. & Phillips, R.A. 2021.  Mitigating the impact of longline fisheries on seabirds: lessons learned from the South Georgia Patagonian toothfish fishery (CCAMLR Subarea 48.3).  Marine Policy 131. doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104618.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 June 2021