Outcomes of conservation projects supported by ACAP in 2018 to be reported to the Advisory Committee this month

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement makes small grants to projects and funds secondments that will assist the Agreement meet its objective of achieving and maintaining a favourable conservation status for albatrosses and petrels. The Secondments and Small Grants Programmes re-commenced after a gap with a call for applications in December 2017.  Four applications for secondment support were received by the ACAP Secretariat by the February 2018 deadline; all four were supported.  Ten Small Grant project applications were received; six of which were approved for funding (click here).  A summary of activities undertaken and outcomes for both programmes will be considered at the 11th Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee (AC11), to be held in Floreanópolis, Brazil later this month.

The four Secondment projects are:

S 2018-01.  Habitat selection of the Black-browed Albatross (Thalassarche melanophris) in the South-West Atlantic: importance of marine fronts and fishing activity.  Jesica Andrea Paz (Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina).  Hosted by the Chilean Antarctic Institute, Punta Arenas, Chile
S 2018-02.  Evaluacion de riesgo de captura incidental de aves marinas en pesquerias del Pacifico Sur: soluciones para el corredor migratorio Chile - Nueva Zelanda (Risk assessment of incidental capture of seabirds in South Pacific fisheries: solutions for the Chile - New Zealand migratory corridor).  Luis Adasme, Instituto de Fomento Pesquero, Chile.  Hosted by Department of Conservation, & Ministry for Primary Industries, New Zealand
S 2018-03.  Conservation of albatrosses in Brazil: definition of priority areas for conservation regarding the fisheries bycatch.  Caio Azevedo Marques, Projeto Albatroz & State University of Santa Cruz, Brazil.  Hosted by British Antarctic Survey, UK
S 2018-04.  Conectado conocimientos, personas y países: avanzando en la difusión, comprensión de las amenazas y las medidas de mitigación para la conservación de fardela blanca (Ardenna creatopus) durante todo su ciclo (Connecting knowledge, people and countries: advancing in outreach, understanding of threats and mitigation measures for the conservation of Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus throughout its cycle).  Verónica López, Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge, Chile.  Hosted by Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge - Santa Cruz, California, USA.

Pink-footed Shearwater, photograph by Peter Hodum

The six funded Small Grants projects are:

ACAP 2018-02.  Prevalence and magnitude of plastic exposure (macro and microplastics and select chemical compounds) in albatrosses and petrels off the shores of Argentina and Brazil.  Marcela Uhart, University of California, USA & Patricia Pereira Serafini, CEMAVE / ICMBio / MMA, Brazil
ACAP 2018-03.  Global review of nature and extent of trawl net captures.  Graham Parker, Parker Conservation, New Zealand
ACAP 2018-04.  Comprehensive review of the Bi-national Plan of Action for the Critically Endangered Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata.  Caroline Icaza, Ecuador & Elisa Goya, Peru
ACAP 2018-05.  Hookpod for seabirds and sea turtles: looking towards a multi-taxa approach for reducing bycatch in pelagic longlines.  Dimas Gianuca, Projeto Albatroz, Brazil
ACAP 2018-07.  Primera diagnosis de conservación de la pardela balear Puffinus mauretanicus en Ibiza (First conservation diagnosis of the Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus in Ibiza).  Meritxell Genovart, CSIC, Spain
ACAP 2018-10.  Assessing the overlap between threatened pelagic seabirds and trawl fisheries operating in northern Patagonian Shelf.  Juan Pablo Seco Pon & Sofía Copello, IIMyC, CONICET-UNMDP, Argentina.

Progress reports for all 10 projects are given in AC11 Inf 02.

The Small Grants round for 2019 is expected to commence with a call for applications following AC11.

With thanks to ACAP's 2019 cohort of Master of Translation student interns from Monash University and University of New South Wales, Australia for unofficial translations from Spanish to English.

Reference:

[ACAP] Secretariat 2019.  Progress Reports on Projects and Secondments supported by the Advisory Committee.  Eleventh Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Florianópolis, Brazil, 13 – 17 May 2019.  AC11 Inf 02.  18 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 May 2019