Today is World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD). World Migratory Bird Day is an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. It has a global outreach and is considered an effective tool to help raise global awareness of the threats faced by migratory birds, their ecological importance, and the need for international cooperation to conserve them.

This year the chosen theme is “Protect Birds: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution”.  ACAP is supporting this theme by making the following statement which was featured on the WMBD’s website on 10 March, along with statements from other key World Migratory Bird Day supporters and partners from around the world (click here).

“Albatrosses and their kin are pelagic seabirds which mainly breed on remote oceanic islands and forage over the open sea. They can travel enormous distances across oceans during foraging flights and migratory journeys, crossing international boundaries and venturing onto the High Seas.  They feed on live prey or by scavenging at or near the sea surface.  Unfortunately, all the species so far studied are prone to seizing and ingesting pieces of floating plastic.  A wide range of such items has been found in their stomachs, from plastic bags, toothbrushes, cigarette lighters, plastic straws, bottle tops and toy soldiers to fragments of latex balloons and Styrofoam, and even the sole of a shoe: the list seems endless.  Concern has also been expressed at the harmful effects of chemicals that may leach out of swallowed plastic.

Ingested plastic can be fed to chicks by regurgitation from their parents, accumulating in stomachs, leading to a false feeling of satiation that could cause fledging underweight with a lower chance of subsequent survival.  Larger plastic pieces ingested can cause injury to the alimentary canal.  Birds can starve to death if foraging or swallowing prey is overly hindered by ingested plastic.

Solving the problem of plastic ingestion by seabirds needs a broad-based approach, tackling marine litter at source and reducing single-use plastic.  ACAP will continue to support studies of plastic pollution in albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters and will continue to draw attention to the problem through its website and by Facebook postings.”

Whereas plastic ingestion can cause harm at the individual level as described in the above statement, its effects at the population level are harder to judge and require further studies.

Plastic items (including a cigarette lighter) withn the cavity of a decomposing Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis chick on Midway Atoll

Photograph by Chris Jordan

Christine Bogle, ACAP Executive Secretary & John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 May 2019

At this week's meeting of ACAP's Population and Conservation Study Group (PaCSWG5) in Floreanópolis, Brazil, South Africa reported yesterday on progress with plans to eradicate introduced House Mice Mus musculus in 2021 on its sub-Antarctic Marion Island. The mice have taken to attacking albatrosses and petrels in the last few years.  Summarized details of activities undertaken over the last 12 months or so follow, updating those given in Preston et al. 2019.

Island pest eradication expert Keith Springer from New Zealand accompanied last year’s annual relief voyage to Marion in April/May and subsequently produced draft project and operational plans for the eradication, building on John Parkes’ feasibility report published in 2016.  These two plans are not yet publicly available.

Bait uptake trials to demonstrate that all mice will eat bait, including trials to ensure mice in caves are reached by aerial baiting, were undertaken by Andrea Angel of BirdLife South Africa and Peter Ryan of the University of Cape Town’s FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology during the relief.  Husbandry trials to assess the feasibility of taking Lesser Sheathbills Chionis minor into captivity were also undertaken. Preliminary results suggest that it will be very challenging to keep a large number of sheathbills in captivity during the eradication attempt, according to the FitzPatrick Institute's Annual Report for 2018.

During the year studies assessing the start and end of mouse breeding across an altitudinal gradient, bait preference and toxicity trials, and monitoring cloud heights through the proposed winter baiting window were undertaken by environmental officers on the island.  Toxicity trials for mice on Marion Island were repeated and it was found that all mice died even at relatively low doses of brodifacoum.

Autumn surveys were conducted for the fourth successive year to monitor the spread of mouse attacks on large chicks of globally Endangered Grey-headed Thalassarche chrysostoma and sooty albatrosses Phoebetria spp. at Marion Island (click here).

A House Mouse attacks a downy Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans chick (globally Vulnerable) on Marion Island, photograph by Stefan Schoombie

BirdLife South Africa has instituted a dedicated website (“Mouse Free Marion”) to raise 30 million South African Rands to cover bait costs for the planned eradication via a “sponsor a hectare campaign” at US$90/ha or ZAR 1000/ha.  To date, 1 297 hectares have been “purchased” by 557 sponsors, representing 4.32% of the island’s total area.

 Following South Africa's presentation to PaCSWG5 yesterday, Nigel Brothers (Australia) sponsored a hectare for the Mouse Free Marion Campagin.

Here Nigel (left) is thanked by ACAP's Information Officer on behalf of BirdLife South Africa during the afternoon tea break

References:

FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology 2019.  FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology DST-NRF Centre of Excellence University of Cape Town Annual Report 2018.  Rondebosch: University of Cape Town.  74 pp.

Parkes, J. 2014.  Eradication of House Mice Mus musculus from Marion Island: a review of feasibility, constraints and risks.  In: Wanless, R.M. (Ed.).  BirdLife South Africa Occasional Report Series No. 1.  Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa.  27 pp.

Preston, G.R., B.J. Dilley, J. Cooper, J. Beaumont, L.F. Chauke, S. L. Chown, N. Devanunthan, M. Dopolo, L. Fikizolo, J. Heine, S. Henderson, C.A. Jacobs, F. Johnson, J. Kelly, A.B. Makhado, C. Marais, J. Maroga, M. Mayekiso, G. McClelland, J. Mphepya, D. Muir, N. Ngcaba, N. Ngcobo, J.P. Parkes, F. Paulsen, S. Schoombie, K. Springer, C. Stringer, H. Valentine, R.M. Wanless & P.G. Ryan 2019. South Africa works towards eradicating introduced house mice from sub-Antarctic Marion Island: the largest island yet attempted for mice.  pp. 40-46.  In: Veitch, C.R., Clout, M.N., Martin, A.R., Russell, J.C. & West, C.J. (Eds). Island Invasives: Scaling up to meet the Challenge.  Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. xiv + 734 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 May 2019

This and next week ACAP is holding its suite of annual meetings in Floreanópolis, Brazil.  Proceedings commenced with a Strategy Workshop to identify the most effective and efficient ways to engage with tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (tRFMOs) to deliver on ACAP conservation objectives on Sunday 5th (click here).

The workshop is being followed by a three-day meeting (the Ninth in the series) of ACAP's Seabird Bycatch Working Group (SBWG9).  Members and observers from 10 of ACAP's 13 Parties are in attendance, along with participants from range states Canada, Japan, Namibia and the USA, and from The Bahamas.  In addition, attendees have come from several NGOs: notably BirdLife International, Humane Society International and Brazil's Projeto Albatroz.  SBWG's four convenors will report on deliberations and findings of its Ninth Meeting to its parent body, the Advisory Committee, at its 11th Meeting from Monday next week.  Click here to access  the meeting's agenda and for the many documents (some password protected) being considered.

Here are some scenes from the first two days of SBWG9 in Floreanópolis:

Convenors and Vice Convenors Juan Pablo Seco Pon (Argentina), Igor Debski (New Zealand), Anton Wolfaardt (UK) and Sebastián Jiménez (Uruguay) get SBWG9 started

The southern African contingent at SBWG9: John Cooper (ACAP Information Officer), Johan de Goede (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, South Africa) and Desmond Bosco Tom (Seabirds & Offshore Islands, Namibia)

Daisuke Ochi, Sachiko Tsuji and Nobuhiro Katsumata, delegates from Japan, at lunch

Brazilian delegates from Projeto Albatroz in discussion

Some of us go running: Johan de Goede from South Africa photographs the dawn from the beach, Praia de Jurerê, Florianópolis

More sights and scenes from SBWG9 can be found on ACAP's Facebook page.  Photographs by John Cooper.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 May 2019

David Goad (Vita Maris Limited, Papamoa, New Zealand) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Endangered Species Research on field trials in New Zealand with the “Hookpod-mini”, designed to reduce seabird bycatch in pelagic longline fisheries.

The paper appeared on line just in time to be mentioned at today's meeting of ACAP's Seabird Bycatch Working Group (SBWG9) in Floreanopolis, Brazil, when it was mentioned that some resistance to the use of hookpods by fishers in the absence of on-board observers had been experienced.  The SBWG has still to consider the Hookpod-mini as a recommended best-practice measure.  In the meantime research on hookpods that release hooks at 20-m depth is about to commence in Brazilian waters, funded by an ACAP Small Grant (ACAP 2018-05) entitled "Hookpod for seabirds and sea turtles: looking towards a multi-taxa approach for reducing bycatch in pelagic longlines". The project is being led by Dimas Gianuca of Projeto Albatroz.  A progress report for this project may be found in AC11 Inf 02.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Hookpods are an emerging technology designed to reduce seabird bycatch in pelagic longline fisheries.  Hookpod-minis were trialled in the New Zealand surface longline fishery in 2016-2017 during short-term experimental (20 longline sets) and longer-term operational (110 longline sets) trials. Two sets of experimental trials were conducted. The first compared snoods fitted with Hookpod-minis with a tori line to unweighted snoods with a tori line. The second compared snoods fitted with Hookpod-minis as a stand-alone mitigation measure to weighted snoods in combination with a tori line. All gear, across both trials, was set at night. Operational trials compared snoods fitted with Hookpod-minis and tori lines to standard mitigation requirements for unweighted gear and tori lines, with all gear set at night. Both sets of trials demonstrated that Hookpod-minis fit easily into fishing operations, do not reduce target species catch rate, and may reduce seabird bycatch to low levels. Our findings suggest that Hookpod-minis as a stand-alone mitigation measure are as effective, or more effective, than current bycatch mitigation measures including the combination of line weighting and tori lines.”

See an earlier report on the Hookpod-mini here.

Reference:

Goad, D., Debski, I. & Potts, J. 2019.  Hookpod-mini: a smaller potential solution to mitigate seabird bycatch in pelagic longline fisheries.  Endangered Species Research 39:1-8.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 May 2019