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With support from Ovenstone's fishing vessel, Edinburgh, Dr Anton Wolfaardt, United Kingdom's ACAP Officer, took the opportunity at the end of his September liaison visit to Tristan da Cunha and its Conservation and Fisheries Departments to visit Gough Island for a few days over the first week of October.

As a guest of the South African National Antarctic Programme he has been staying in the weather station at Transvaal Bay.  During his visit he has been shown two long-term studies of ACAP-listed birds: Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena and Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos.  He has also had the opportunity to view, and photograph, Sooty Albatrosses Phoebetria fusca breeding on the island's coastal cliffs.

Norman Glass, Tristan Conservation Department (left) introduces Anton Wolfaardt to a Tristan Albatross study chick in Gonydale, Gough Island. Photograph by Donovan Willis

Following his consultations with Tristan's Conservation and Fisheries Departments, his visit to Gough has enabled him to hold fruitful discussions with a number of researchers working with seabirds on the island (click here).

Anton is employed by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC; www.jncc.gov.uk).

Click here for an earlier news item on Anton's visit to Tristan da Cunha. 

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 3 October 2009