The Albatross Task Force is an international team of seabird bycatch mitigation experts led by BirdLife International and its UK’s partner, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).  The task force released its 2018/19 annual report in October last year.  In the absence of a summary in the document, information follows from a media release.

 “It has been yet another eventful year for our Albatross Task Force (ATF) teams and we have lots of exciting news to share with you!  In the attached ATF annual progress report you can read all about our achievements in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Namibia and South Africa between April 2018-March 2019.

All over the world, our ATF teams are focusing ever more on ensuring that national government agencies are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to help protect albatrosses at sea and sustain fleet-wide reductions into the future.  In Namibia, the ATF has trained 75% of national fisheries observers and the data they have been collecting suggest that bycatch rates have dropped by over 90% in the demersal longline fleet since the introduction of regulations in 2015!  Alongside similar reductions achieved in the South African hake trawl fleet, big leaps have clearly been made for albatrosses and petrels in southern Africa.  Nonetheless, mitigation compliance remains a challenge and our teams in Brazil, Chile and South Africa have been working closely with fishers to test and develop new mitigation measures that are better suited to their needs.

The past year has also seen an unprecedented collaboration take place between our ATF teams in the Southern Cone, with instructors from Argentina sharing their experience of mitigating seabird bycatch on a government trawl research vessel in Chile.  This has led to an increased commitment to seabird conservation by Chile’s government.  This is of great importance as trawl fleets in Chile have to date been able to operate in the absence of any seabird bycatch mitigation measures.  Many lessons can be learned from neighbouring Argentina, where legislation requiring the use of bird-scaring lines came into force in May 2018.  Our ATF teams therefore aim to continue to facilitate this transnational cooperation moving forward.”

Interested persons can support the Albatross Task Force here

With thanks to Nina da Rocha, Albatross Task Force Project Officer

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 January 2010

Back in October last year doctoral student Stefan Schoombie with fellow researchers on South Africa’s Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean took their home-made World Albatross Day banner to Ship’s Cove to display next to some breeding Sooty Albatrosses Phoebetria fusca (click here).

Recently Stefan with his wife Janine walked from the research station where they stay to Grey-headed Albatross Ridge in the south of the island.  From my own experience this trek can take up to a full day, over mostly difficult and hilly terrain – and often in poor weather.  Carrying their original WAD2020 banner made from a black-out curtain and its poles all the way is not going to be appealing.  No matter, there is a field hut next to the ridge and the Schoombies used what materials were available there to make a banner to display next to a colony of Grey-headed Albatrosses Thalassarche chrysostoma on the ridge.

Making the WAD2020 banner in the field hut at Grey-headed Albatross Ridge

Stefan and Janine Schoombie display their new World Albatross Day banner next to a small group of breeding Grey-headed Albatrosses on Marion Island

Immediately below the ridge is the partially vegetated tumbled lava of Santa Rosa Valley.  Grey-headed Albatrosses, including fledglings, occasionally crash land in the lava field and may not then be able to fly out, leading to their death.  While Stefan is studying mainly Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans through the University of Cape Town for his PhD, Janine’s research is with the University of Pretoria’s Department of Plant and Soil Science.  She writes to ACAP Latest News: “The project we are working on looks at the effect of wind on the terrestrial ecology of the island.  My research on the Grey-headed Albatrosses focuses on finding out how the wind influences their flight capabilities around Grey-headed Albatross Ridge and how changes in wind patterns (as a consequence of climate change) might affect them in the future.”  Best wishes for her and Stefan’s research!

The field hut from Grey-headed Albatross Ridge on Marion Island. The tumbled black lava below it can trap fledging abatrosses.

  The Black-browed Albatross depicted is a regular vagant among the Grey-headed Albatrosses (click here). Photograph by Michelle Risi

With thanks to Janine and Stefan Schoombie.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 January 2019

Thirty-six eggs were laid in the current (2019/20) breeding season of globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi in New Zealand’s only mainland albatross colony of Taiaroa Head, following a final count by Department of Conservation (DOC) staff late last year.  This is less than the previous season’s 51-egg record.

“However, that [record] was a result of re-breeding by the parents of failed eggs the previous season when extreme weather conditions resulted in a higher-than-usual number of failed nests.  That season only 13 chicks fledged compared with 26 and 23 chicks over the previous two years.”  The latest egg count of 36 is thus considered to “show a return to normal after two years of extremes”.

DOC has also reinstalled its live-streaming ‘Royal Cam’: “The season of 2019/2020 has seen the Royal Cam once again move up the hill.  Now at Top Flat Track our new pair is OGK (banded Orange, Green, Black) a 21-year old male and YRK (banded Yellow, Red, Black) a 25-year old female.  YRK laid the egg on 14 November 2019.  This season the live stream has partnered with Cornell Bird Lab.  There are some new features including a trial of night vision and the ability to pan the camera at the ranger’s discretion.”

Watch the Royal Cam here.

A colour-banded Northern Royal Albatross stands over it egg on Taiaroa Head

With thanks to Sharyn Broni, Ranger, Biodiversity, New Zealand Department of Conservation.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 January 2020

Steeple Jason is the second largest island in the Jason Islands Group, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)*.  The uninhabited island, a private nature reserve since 1970 that is owned by the Wildlife Conservation Society, supports breeding populations of two ACAP-listed species: Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris and Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus.  The island supports the largest colony of the former species in the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)*.

Back in November last year Falklands Conservation (BirdLife partner) travelled to Steeple Jason as part of the Falkland Islands Seabird Monitoring Programme (FISMP) to survey breeding albatrosses and penguins.  Equipped with a home-made World Albatross Day banner (and the novelty of a drone) the team obtained some great photos from the edge of an albatross colony.

From left: Sarah Crofts, Megan Tierney and Peter Wessels

The above two photos by drone: the albatrosses appear to take no notice

Sarah Crtofts works on the banner destined for Steeple Jason

Before the field trip Conservation Officer Sarah Crofts wrote to ACAP Latest News: “World Albatross Day brings awareness of the global conservation plight of these extraordinarily long-lived ocean navigators.  It also celebrates the efforts achieved by scientists, conservationists, governments and industry working together to sustain albatross populations into the future". 

Steeple Jason is the ninth albatross island to be part of the ‘WAD2020 Banner Challenge’, and the first for the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)*.  More islands are expected to be added to the list, hopefully also including several in the northern Hemisphere.  If a few more islands are included it is intended to make a poster of the banner photos in time for World Albatross Day on 19 June that will be freely available for downloading.

With thanks to Sarah Crofts and Peter Wessels, Falklands Conservation and Megan Tierney, Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 January 2019

*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.