ACAP Latest News

“Are you a mid- to late-career stage scientist or academic working in Antarctic research?  This is your chance to apply for the 2026 SCAR [Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research] Visiting Scholar Scheme.  We are providing the opportunity to undertake a short-term visit (1-4 weeks) to one or more institutes in a SCAR member country to provide training and mentoring.  Awards are USD5000.

Applications close 18 September 2026.”

Total number of bottle caps/lids and plastic resin pellets (nurdles) ingested by the “top 10” most impacted Sable [Flesh-footed] Shearwater fledglings from each year on Lord Howe Island, from the publication

Jennifer Lavers (Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Earth's Future on an increase in plastic ingestion by Near Threatened Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The world is a complex system with rapid changes making it difficult to anticipate further change and mitigate the impacts.  Long‐term ecological studies have contributed disproportionately to our understanding of complex ecosystem responses, including shifts in baseline conditions.  While numerous studies have identified serious health consequences resulting from plastics exposure, plastics research often suffers from contradictory messaging.  To help address this issue, we use a long‐term plastic ingestion data set for Australian shearwaters (2010–2026) to describe patterns in total plastics exposure over time (number and mass of plastic consumed) as well as two commonly ingested items (plastic bottle caps, plastic resin pellets or “nurdles”).  Plastic prevalence within the population (typically 75%–85%) has remained consistent over 16 years; however, there has been a substantial and rapid increase in the mass and number of ingested plastics, including lids and pellets, since 2022.  We demonstrate that, had this project been shorter in duration (e.g., the focus of a graduate research project), the conclusions could have been very different, and potentially incomplete.  Overall, as the study window increases, a more complete picture becomes apparent: a combination of “good” and “bad” years for the birds, variable patterns in “problematic” items such as lids, and an accelerating trend in the quantity of plastics ingested by fledglings, particularly in the last 5 years.  As plastic‐related pressures increase, understanding rapidly changing systems requires thoughtful consideration of the most relevant analyses and metrics which may differ from those used historically.”

Reference:

Lavers, J.L., de Jersey, A.M., Rivers‐Auty, J. & Bond, A.L. 2026.  Abrupt recent increases in plastic ingestion by Sable Shearwaters (Ardenna carneipes).  Earth's Future 14, e2026EF008572.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 16 September 2026

Experimental set-up to measure relaxation and contraction of proventriculus sections from Flesh-footed Shearwater fledglings, from the publication

Ingrid Pollet (Department of Biology, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada) and colleagues have published open access in the Journal of Hazardous Materials: Plastics on the effects of ingested plastic on stomachs of Near Threatened Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Plastic pollution poses a severe threat to marine wildlife, with ingestion documented in hundreds of species worldwide. While physical and chemical consequences of plastic ingestion are well established, its biomechanical impacts remain poorly understood. Here, we examined how plastic ingestion influences the mechanical properties of the proventriculus (stomach) of Sable Shearwater (Ardenna carneipes) fledglings from Lord Howe Island, Australia, a population known for high plastic exposure. We performed tensile tests on ex vivo proventriculus tissue samples from 23 individuals with a gradient of ingested plastic (0–55.39 g), and quantified relaxation and contraction following acetylcholine stimulation. We hypothesised that plastic-impacted tissues would exhibit reduced contraction. Instead, proventriculus from birds with low or no plastic relaxed more readily, whereas those with high plastic loads contracted more strongly in response to acetylcholine. Furthermore, proventriculus weight was positively correlated with plastic load (r = 0.94, p < 0.0001). These experiments represent a first-of-its-kind approach: ex vivo biomechanical testing of avian tissues in field laboratories from wild populations. Our findings reveal anatomical and mechanical consequences of plastic ingestion, with increased proventriculus mass and force generation consistent with pathological tissue remodelling and a failure to undergo the normal reduction in gastrointestinal mass prior to migration. Chronic plastic exposure may disrupt stomach functions, with downstream effects on digestion, nutrient absorption, and overall fitness.”

Reference:

Pollet, I.L., Connelly, W.M., Feenstra, M.L., de Jersey, A.M., Bond, A.L., Lavers, J.L. & Rivers-Auty, J. 2026.  Plastic ingestion alters stomach anatomy and biomechanics in sable shearwaters (Ardenna carneipes).  Journal of Hazardous Materials: Plastics 5, 100080.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 15 September 2026

The current state of play for BOTYT2026-NZ

With only nine days left for voting, the ACAP-listed and Endangered Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi is now eighth on the leader board for New Zealand’s annual Bird of the Year competition (BOTY2026-NZ).  Respectable, maybe, as the highest-scoring procellariform seabird out of 70-odd candidates.  But still a long way off the podium!

You can vote for the Northern Royal Albatross, and for its two fellow ACAP-listed species, the Vulnerable Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni and the Endangered Westland Petrel P. westlandica, among the package of five candidates required to be chosen here.  Voting closes on 20 September, with the winner to be announced the next day.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 11 September 2026