Flesh-footed Shearwater in flight, photograph by Mike Double

The Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) held its Fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP15) in Campo Grande, Brazil over 23-29 March 2026.  Australia, France and New Zealand had proposed (UNEP/CMS/COP15/Doc.30.2.6) including the Near threatened Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes on Appendix II of the Convention (click here).

The proposal stated that the species’ “listing on Appendix II will elevate the suitability score of flesh-footed shearwater for inclusion on Annex 1 of ACAP.  A listing on Annex 1 of ACAP would further facilitate the anticipated benefits identified here as ACAP is very active in the development and promotion of best-practice seabird bycatch mitigation advice for relevant fisheries.”

During the week’s meeting, the Committee of the Whole (CoW) recommended the proposal, supported by ACAP, to add the shearwater to Appendix II be adopted by the Conference of Parties.

New Zealand then introduced the proposed Concerted Action for the Flesh-footed Shearwater (UNEP/CMS/COP15/Doc.31.3.10), emphasizing the need for scaled-up action on the threat posed by bycatch.  ACAP supported the proposal, noting it was “well-overdue”.  The CoW forwarded both proposals to the COP for adoption.

Approved!

The Conference of Parties met in plenary on the last day of COP15 and accepted both the COW’s proposals, formally adopting the Flesh-footed Shearwater onto Appendix II and approving the proposed Concerted Action for the species.

Two shearwaters, the Critically Endangered Balearic Puffinus mauretanicus and the Vulnerable Pink-footed Ardenna creatopus, are listed on Annex 1 of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.  Both are also listed on Appendix 1 of the Convention on Migratory Species, now joined by the Flesh-footed Shearwater.  Two earlier ACAP Monthly Missives have considered whether the Flesh-footed Shearwater should be listed by the Albatross and Petrel Agreement (click here).

At COP15, the Federal Government of Germany, depository of the Convention and host of the CMS Secretariat, offered to host COP16 in Bonn in 2029.  COP16 will coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Convention, also known as the Bonn Convention, which was signed in Bonn in June 1979.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 01 April 2026

Photograph by Tom McDonnell, from the LIFE Raft Facebook page

In 2021, the LIFE Raft (Rathlin Acting for Tomorrow) project began with the aim to remove feral Ferrets Mustela furo and Brown or Norway Rats Rattus norvegicus to help secure the future of Northern Ireland’s largest seabird colony on inhabited 1371-ha Rathlin Island, off the north coast of County Antrim. Ferrets were released on the island in the 1980s and rats have been present since the 19th century.

“Rathlin is home to over 250 000 seabirds, including internationally important populations of Puffins, Razorbills, Guillemots.  Researchers on Rathlin found one ferret was responsible for killing 27 adult birds in just two days” (click here).

“In 2025 following the successful eradication of the ferrets [formally announced in March 2026], which were preying on eggs, chicks, and adult seabirds, Manx Shearwaters were recorded breeding on the island for the first time in over two decades.  “Using night-vision technology, the LIFE Raft team captured footage of young birds ready to fledge from their burrows, providing the confirmation of Manx Shearwaters successfully nesting and raising chicks on the island.”

From the LIFE Raft Facebook page

Tthe ferrets were removed by the deployment of 600 kill and live traps. To eliminate the rats over 6500 rodenticide bait stations made of corrugated plastic piping were then placed every 50 m over the whole island, supported by volunteer teams, rope work on cliffs, field cameras, thermal drones, 28 000 wax chew blocks to detect presence and Woody, the rat detection dog.  “No ferrets have been seen on the island since Autumn of 2023 and only two rats have been seen in 2025.  The project is currently following international eradication best practice and will continue our rat eradication efforts this Winter, starting November 2025” (click here).

According to ‘Biz’ Bell of Wildlife Management International, Rathlin is the first island from which ferrets have been eliminated.

Manx Shearwater fledglings leave their Rathlin burrows at night, from the LIFE Raft Facebook page

Watch a video about the natural history of Rathlin Island, read a press release about the end of the ferrets and see an earlier ACAP Latest News article on the island’s shearwaters.

News of the project’s success comes in a year when ACAP has chosen “Habitat Restoration” as its theme for World Albatross Day on 19 June 2026.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 31 March 2026

 The Governments of New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Cook Islands, Dominican Republic and Fiji jointly submitted a proposal (UNEP/CMS/COP15/Doc.30.2.5/Rev.1), to list 26 species, subspecies and geographic populations of gadfly petrels in the genera Pterodroma and Pseudobulweria on either Appendix I or II to the Fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) that met last week in Campo Grande, Brazil.

The proposed petrels include single-island endemics and poorly known taxa.  They are mainly of low-latitude and tropical islands in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.  Four gadfly petrels are already listed on CMS Appendix I.  They are the Bermuda P. cahow, Galapagos P. phaeopygia, Hawaiian P. sandwichensis and Henderson P. atrata Petrels.

New Zealand introduced the proposal to list the gadfly petrels, noting they are “some of the rarest, most endangered, and poorly understood seabirds in the world.”  Many Parties attending COP15 expressed strong support in the Committee of the Whole (CoW).  The proposal was then submitted for adoption by the Conference of Parties, which formally adopted all the proposed taxa onto its Appendices on 30 March, the closing day of COP15.

The gadfly petrel proposal is available in English, French and Spanish (click here).

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement held a workshop in Wellington, New Zealand in 2017 with the objective of advancing understanding about best approaches for international cooperation in the conservation of Pterodroma and other small burrowing petrel species.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 30 March 2026

Wandering Albatross by Lea Finke of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for the inaugural World Albatross Day on 19 June 2020, after a photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Victoria Warwick-Evans (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Conservation Biology on the overlap between fisheries and Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans from two different colonies in  the South Atlantic.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Bycatch in fisheries is one of the most serious threats to pelagic seabirds, causing major population declines.  Mitigation measures can reduce bycatch substantially, but many fisheries fail to apply best practices, and seabird mortality remains high. Seabirds often segregate at sea according to sex and life-history stage, and bycatch risk can vary accordingly.  Few studies have tested whether spatial segregation among colonies in foraging areas affects bycatch risk.  We tracked nonbreeding wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) from Bird Island and neighboring Prion Island, South Georgia, to investigate whether differences in at-sea distributions and overlap with fisheries explain the contrasting population trends. Tracked individuals at Bird Island were of known status (immature or nonbreeding adults), and at Prion Island, they were most likely older immatures and potentially a few nonbreeding adults.  There was marked spatial segregation between age classes at Bird Island, but the pattern between breeding sites was more complex. The overlap with fisheries was highest in nonbreeding adults from Bird Island, which experienced a faster rate of population decline than at Prion Island, where overlap with fisheries was lower. Overlap was highest with Chinese, South Korean, and Taiwanese squid jiggers, Taiwanese pelagic longliners, and Argentinian and Spanish trawlers. By improving our knowledge of the spatiotemporal overlap of seabirds with fisheries, management initiatives can be directed at the fleets that represent the greatest threats.”

With thanks to Richard Phillips.

Reference:

Warwick-Evans, V., Pearmain, E.J. & Phillips, R.A. 2026.  Overlap of nonbreeding wandering albatrosses with fisheries and implications for colony-specific population trajectories at South Georgia.  Conservation Biology DOI: 10.1111/cobi.70260.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 27 March 2026