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Read about recent developments and findings in procellariiform science and conservation relevant to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels in ACAP Latest News.

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Mitigating seabird captures during hauling on smaller longline vessels in New Zealand waters

Joanna Pierre (Johanna Pierre Environmental Consulting Ltd, Naenae, New Zealand) has produced a final report for the Conservation Services Programme of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation that recommends buoy deployments to reduce haul captures and improving fish waste management practices.

The report’s Executive Summary follows:

‘Seabird captures in longline fisheries may occur on the set, soak or haul. Bycatch reduction measures are best developed, tested and implemented for reducing seabird captures occurring during longline sets. Measures affecting the nature and extent of haul captures, and mitigation approaches to reduce those captures, are not well-known. Further, the difficulty of accurately identifying captures as occurring on the haul means that live seabird captures are typically used as a proxy for haul captures in bycatch datasets.

A global review shows four broad categories of mitigation used during longline hauling: physical barriers, measures that reduce the attractiveness of the haul area, deterrents, and operational approaches that are part of fishing. Of devices that operate as physical barriers to seabirds, bird exclusion devices, tori lines and towed buoys have been tested and proven effective in reducing seabird interactions with hauled longline gear. Discharging fish waste such that seabirds are not attracted to the hauling bay is another effective measure, and seabird abundance around vessels is reduced by retaining fish waste during hauling. While a number of deterrents and ad hoc or reactive approaches to reducing haul captures have been discussed in the literature, these have generally not been empirically tested.

Information collected by government fisheries observers on 73 bottom longline and 60 surface longline trips that have occurred since 1 October 2012 on New Zealand vessels < 34 m in overall length showed that most of these measures are in place here. However, implementation may be limited to a small number of vessels (e.g. one bottom longliner used a tori line and two surface longliners used a buoy to reduce seabird interactions with gear at hauling). Implementation may also not be consistent amongst vessels in a fleet, or on the same vessel between trips (e.g., for fish waste management, where some skippers retained all waste until after hauling or discharged when hooks were well below the sea surface, whilst others discharged used baits directly back into the hauling bay as the line was pulled in). This variation in practices creates consequent variation in haul capture risks. Further, the information already available on vessel operations in New Zealand is sufficient to enable actions to reduce haul capture risks.

Fisher and observer records returned from smaller-vessel New Zealand longline fisheries since 1 October 2009 show that 19 – 32% and 12 – 15% of seabird captures were live, and so likely to have occurred on the haul, for bottom and surface longline respectively. Reports of live-captured petrels and shearwaters were more common than albatross captures in datasets for bottom longline fisheries overall. However, these data are numerically dominated by captures reported from Fisheries Management Area (FMA) 1 (where no albatross captures were documented). Albatross captures were reported from bottom longline fisheries in other areas. Across the regions where surface longline fisheries occur, albatrosses dominate capture reports. In both fisher and observer datasets, and for both fishing methods, single live captures per trip were most common. This suggests that implementing reactive mitigation approaches after a live-capture event has occurred will not deliver the greatest possible reduction in haul captures.

Recommended next steps to progress haul mitigation work in smaller-vessel bottom longline fisheries include prioritising mitigation efforts in FMA 1, given the relatively large numbers of captures of high risk seabirds reported there. For surface longline fisheries, a fleet-level approach is recommended, given vessels are often mobile amongst FMAs due to the highly migratory nature of target fish species and relatively smaller number of vessels involved (less than 40). Mitigation efforts should include exploring device deployments (e.g. buoys) to reduce haul captures, and improving the quality and consistency of fish waste management practices that minimise capture risks during hauling. While sufficient information exists to progress mitigation approaches, recommendations are also provided for enhancing data collection to improve knowledge and understanding of the nature and extent of haul captures in New Zealand’s smaller-vessel longline fisheries.”

longline 

With thanks to Barry Baker.

Reference:

Pierre, J.P. 2018.  Mitigating seabird captures during hauling on smaller longline vessels.  [Naenae ]: JPEC Ltd.  49 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 June 2018

Antarctic expert Barbara Wienecke lectures on the secret lives of Southern Giant Petrels

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) at Kingston in Tasmania holds a weekly seminar programme open to the public where it showcases the work of the Australian Antarctic Program.  This month’s lecture “The Secret Lives of Southern Giant Petrels” is presented by Barbara Wienecke (AAD) on the 14th and 15th on behalf of her co-workers John van den Hoff, John McKinlay, Sasa Otovic and Madalyn Riley.  Barbara is a seabird ecologist who has studied mainly penguins over the years.  Her seminar focuses on a study of Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus in Antarctica  that was based on images obtained from automated cameras that operated all year long.

Weinecke lecture

The lecture’s abstract follows:

“Southern Giant Petrels (SGPs) are the largest flying birds that breed in Antarctica.  Although they have a circumpolar distribution, only four small colonies are known in East Antarctica; three of those are in the Australian Antarctic Territory and all are located in Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs).  Each ASPA has a management [plan] that is reviewed every few years.  Since these birds are easily disturbed by the presence of humans, we are trying to find non-intrusive ways to obtain data that help to determine whether the management plans are successful in protecting the values of the Areas.  This talk reports on the efforts to test the utility of automated camera systems — already successfully deployed near Adélie penguin colonies — to collect data on the phenology of SGPs and the potential to monitor these birds long term with minimal human impact in a cost effective way.  Automated cameras were deployed at Hawker Island (near Davis station) and at Nelly Island (near Casey station).  We analysed of information from images obtained over a 3-year period and compared our findings between the two islands.  The cameras allow us to gain interesting insights into the behaviours of SGPs and deliver some beautiful images as well!”

Read more about the automated cameras here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 June 2018

What’s on the menu? Diet of Cory’s Shearwaters reveals distribution of pelagic prey

Hansy Alonso (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Lisbon, Portugal) and colleagues have published in the journal Progress in Oceanography on the fish diet of Cory’s Shearwaters Calonectris borealis (Least Concern) from the Selvagens.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The distribution of many marine organisms is still poorly understood, particularly in oceanic regions. Seabirds, as aerial predators which cover extensive areas across the oceans, can potentially be used to enhance our knowledge on the distribution and abundance of their prey. In this study, we combined tracking data and dietary data from individual Cory’s shearwaters Calonectris borealis (n = 68) breeding in Selvagens archipelago, Madeira, Portugal, during the chick-rearing periods of 2011 and 2016, in order to infer prey origin within shearwaters’ main foraging areas. The digestion state of each prey item in the diet was assessed and classified; and compared to digestion states from known prey items fed to captive birds. In a novel approach, we combined tracking data with information on the prey digestion duration and data on the transit times from foraging grounds to the colony to estimate the location of prey capture. We found a consistent heterogeneity in prey distribution across four different marine domains: Selvagens, deep-sea, seamounts, and continental shelf. In oceanic areas, the chub mackerel Scomber colias, the main prey of Cory’s shearwaters, was strongly associated with seamounts and insular shelves, whereas oceanic species like pilot-fish, flying-squid, flying-fish were clearly associated with deep-sea waters. Sardines Sardina pilchardus, anchovies Engraulis encrasicolus and other coastal species were associated with the African shelf. Prey origin assignment was robust across three different sets of assumptions, and was also supported by information on the digestion state of prey collected over a large independent sampling period (671 samples, collected in 2008–2010). The integration of fine-scale dietary and foraging trip data from marine predators provides a new framework to gain insights into the distribution and abundance of prey species in poorly known oceanic areas.”

Cory's Shearwater, photograph by John Graham

Reference:

Alonso, H., Granadeiro, J.P., Dias, M.P., Catry, T. & Catry, P. 2018.  Fine-scale tracking and diet information of a marine predator reveals the origin and contrasting spatial distribution of prey.  Progress in Oceanography 162: 1-12.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 June 2018

Translocations of Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses in Hawaii; a case study

Eric Vanderwerf and colleagues of Pacific Rim Conservation have published a case study that describes their work translocating eggs and chicks of Laysan Phoebastria immutabilis and Black-footed P. nigripes Albatrosses in an endeavour to create a new colony on the Hawaiian island of Oahu that will be safe from projected sea-level rise.

In the next few years it is expected that hand-reared albatrosses that fledged successfully will return to commence breeding within the fenced translocation site in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge.  Already one Laysan Albatross has returned to the refuge as a three-year old (click here).

Translocated Laysan Albatrosses shelter from the sun, photograph by Lindsay Young

Reference:

VanderWerf, E.A., Young, L.C., Kohley, C.R. & Dalton, M. 2018.  Translocations of Laysan and black-footed albatrosses in Hawaii, USA, to create new protected breeding colonies safe from climate change.  In: Soorae, P.S. (Ed.).  Global Reintroduction Perspectives: 2018.  Case Studies from around the Globe.  Gland, Switzerland & Environment Agency, Abu Dhabi, UAE: IUCN/SSC Reintroduction Specialist Group. pp. 100-105.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 June 2018

The report of last month’s Sixth Session of the Meeting of Parties to the Agreement is now available. Highlights are featured here

The English text of the report of last month’s Sixth Session of the Meeting of Parties (MoP6) to the Agreement held in South Africa is now available (click here).  Some of the meeting’s highlights follow.

The Sixth Session of the Meeting of Parties to the Agreement was hosted by South Africa in in the modern and well-equipped Nombolo Mdhluli Conference Centre in the Skukuza Rest Camp, Kruger National Park.  Dr Luthando Dziba, Managing Executive: Conservation Services, South African National Parks, formally welcomed delegates to the Sixth Session of the Meeting of Parties on behalf of the Government of South Africa.

In his address Dr Dziba welcomed all the delegates and observers to South Africa and to the Kruger National Park.  He noted that South Africa had previously hosted the Fourth Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee, in Somerset West in 2008, but this was the first time it was hosting a session of the Meeting of Parties.  He described the importance of South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion and Prince Edward Islands for ACAP-listed species, including the globally Vulnerable Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans and the globally Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos.  He referred to research conducted on albatrosses and petrels at the Prince Edward Island group, including the at-sea tracking of albatrosses which showed they ranged widely in the Southern Ocean.

Albatross Valley on Prince Edward Island has a high density of breeding Wandering Albatrosses, photograph by Bruce Dyer

Dr Ashley Naidoo, Chief Director in the South African Department of Environmental Affairs’ Branch: Oceans and Coasts was elected to chair the meeting, supported by ACAP’s Executive Secretary, Dr Marco Favero and Dr Nathan Walker, Chair of ACAP’s Advisory Committee.  Dr Naidoo in his opening remarks was pleased to note that delegates from all 13 Parties were in attendance at the meeting, along with observers from three albatross and petrel range states (i.e. at least one ACAP-listed species occurs within its waters), Canada, Mexico (for its first ACAP meeting) and the USA.  Although not present this time it was noted close links were being kept with Namibia.  Observers were also present from several intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

A significant development at the meeting was the adoption, following some years of discussions, of a resolution to enable any member economy of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum whose vessels fish within the range of albatrosses and petrels to participate as an observer by sending representatives to sessions of the Meeting of the Parties and its subsidiary bodies.  It is believed this development will allow ACAP to engage with further distant water fishing nations that operate fisheries throughout the ranges of albatrosses and petrels an improvement in mitigating against the threats facing ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels

During the meeting delegates were told of the United Kingdom’s plan to eradicate introduced House Mice Mus musculus on Gough Island in the South Atlantic, set to take place next year. Notice was also given of South Africa’s intention to rid its sub-Antarctic Marion Island of House Mice in 2020, which, as at Gough, have taken up the habit of attacking and killing albatross chicks (which have no defences to a land-based predator).  The eradication of mice from these two important seabird islands will make a significant contribution to the improvement in the conservation status of a number of ACAP priority species and populations.  The meeting also heard of recent successes eradicating House Mice on New Zealand’s Antipodes Island and of both rats and mice on South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)*, the largest island where such an eradication has been so far attempted.

Details were given on ACAP’s arrangements with other bodies, especially the tuna Regional Fishery Management Organizations.  ACAP intended to work towards signing memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the South East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (SEAFO) and the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA).

An important part of the meeting’s work was to set the scale of contributions for Parties and a budget for the next triennium, up until the Seventh Session of the Meeting of Parties, expected to be held in 2021 in Hobart, Australia – when ACAP will be 20 years old.

It was noted that ACAP’s Executive Secretary will be leaving the position towards year end and that the position has been advertised and a short list of applicants drawn up, with the intention of making an appointment by the end of August.  As this was the last ACAP meeting Marco Favero will attend as Executive Secretary the meeting offered him its grateful thanks and best wishes for the future.

During the meeting delegates went on early-morning, evening and night-time game drives, courtesy of the South African hosts, seeing all the “Big Five” (African Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Leopard, Lion and White Rhino) as well as Giraffes, Spotted Hyenas, Honey Badgers and several species of buck and smaller mammals.  Delegates were able to use hand-held spotlights to view animals at night from the open vehicles.  One night-time drive was followed by a braaivleis (barbecue), with Kudu meat on the menu, under brilliant stars and candle light in a boma (stockade) outside the confines of the rest camp.  On the last evening South Africa hosted delegates to a traditional poikiekos (stew pot) meal in the open air within the camp.

French and Spanish texts of the MoP6 Report will be posted to this website by month end.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 June 2018

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

The Agreement on the
Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks to conserve listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by coordinating international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations.

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