Seabird population monitoring and research into the survival and dispersal of juvenile Flesh-footed Shearwaters: New Zealand’s Conservation Services Programme Annual Plan for 2023/24

Population monitoring of Flesh-footed Shearwaters is one of the projects to be delivered by the Conservation Services Programme; photograph by Ian Hutton

New Zealand’s Conservation Services Programme (CSP) has published its 2023/2024 Annual Plan. The CSP operates under the Department of Conservation, “with the aim of avoiding, remedying, or mitigating the adverse effects of commercial fisheries on protected species.” 

The Annual Plan provides a summary of upcoming and ongoing research projects to be delivered by the CSP and is divided into three areas: 

• Interaction Projects (section 2): including the Observer Programme and seabird identification programmes.
• Population Projects (section 3): a number of population and demographic studies of albatrosses endemic to New Zealand, monitoring of the Black Petrel and White-chinned Petrel, and research into the survival and dispersal of juvenile Flesh-footed Shearwaters.
• Mitigation Projects (section 4): the Protected Species Liaison Project, the use and effectiveness of various mitigation measures and a project focussed on understanding the relationship between fishhook size and bait type with seabird and turtle captures.

The 2023/2024 Conservation Services Programme Annual Plan is available to download at the Department of Conservation website, or here.

21 July 2023