Josh Adams (United States Geological Survey, Santa Cruz, California, USA) and colleagues have published open access in the online journal Marine Ornithology on diving behaviour of ACAP-listed and globally Vulnerable Pink-footed Shearwaters Ardenna creatopus.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Recent information reporting Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus mortality from fisheries bycatch throughout its range has encouraged fisheries managers in Chile to evaluate and consider shearwater foraging behaviors to better evaluate risk. In response, we tracked six chick-rearing adult Pink-footed Shearwaters from Isla Mocha, off south-central Chile, from 19 to 28 March 2015 using global positioning sensors and time-depth recorders. We recorded seven complete trips averaging 4.2 ± 2.5 d (mean ± SD). Chick-provisioning adults foraged within 334 km (i.e., 175 ± 100 km) of Isla Mocha. Dives (n = 515) occurred throughout the measured foraging range but most frequently occurred within 5-30 km from the mainland coast, in continental shelf waters north of Valdivia. Other regions with diving behavior were within ~20 km of Isla Mocha, and from Lebu to north of Talcahuano. Based on movement behavior analysis, adults spent most of their time at sea “resting/foraging” (62% ± 6%), with the remainder spent “searching” (16% ± 4%) and “transiting” (20% ± 5%). The proportions of total number of dives associated with these three behaviors were similar. On average, dives were relatively shallow (1.6 ± 1.2 m, maximum depth = 10.1 m) and brief (4.7 ± 4.8 s, maximum duration = 25.7 s). Dives occurred during the day, at night, and at twilight, with most activity occurring at twilight and during the day. Although based on a small sample size, our results may be useful for informing modifications to fishing gear or fisheries policy to reduce the likelihood of bycatch and thus meet Chilean conservation goals for Pink-footed Shearwaters.”

Pink-footed Shearwater at sea, photograph from Oikonos

Reference:

Adams, J., Felis, J.J., Czapanskiy, M., Carle, R.D. & Hodum, P.J. 2019.  Diving behavior of Pink-footed Shearwaters Ardenna creatopus rearing chicks on Isla Mocha, Chile. Marine Ornithology 47: 17-24.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 December 2018

On 7 November 2017, west of Chile in the Pacific Ocean at 30° 20'S, 91° 00'W a great albatross carrying metal and white plastic (engraved 430, right leg) bands was photographed from the yacht H2O at sea by Antoine Chabrolle of France’s Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris.  The general region visited was approximately 250 km west of Isla Alejandro Selkirk and 300 km south of Isla de Robinson Crusoe.  Following an on-line enquiry by Yan Ropert-Coudert, Secretary of the Expert Group on Birds and Marine Mammals of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR-EGBAMM), the bird was found to be a globally Endangered (and Nationally Critical) Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis (of the nominate subspecies antipodensis) from New Zealand’s Antipodes Island.

The Antipodean Albatross takes to the air, revealing its plastic colour and metal bands, photograph by Antoine Chabrolle

Well-known New Zealand albatross researchers, Kath Walker and Graeme Elliott have reported to SCAR-EGBAMM that the bird when photographed was a 17-year old female which was banded (metal band R55568) as a chick.  The bird was about to fledge from a nest near the edge of their long-term Antipodes Island study area on 21 December 2000.

Kath Walker further reports: “she returned to the island to court in the summers of 2004 and 2007 but we had not seen her since, probably because she found a mate and started nesting outside our study area, given the location of her natal nest.  The location at sea you spotted her is not unexpected as the birds we track wearing loggers use this area, but it’s great to get an actual GPS position, and a photograph, and to know that she [was] actually still alive a decade after we last saw her”.

SCAR-EGBAMM (and its precursors within the Biological Investigations of Marine Systems and Stocks [BIOMASS) and SCAR from the1980s) has and continues to serve a useful purpose in helping identify sightings of colour-banded seabirds in the Southern Ocean by tracking down the original banders.

With thanks to Antoine Chabrolle, Louise Chilvers, Graeme Elliott, Jérôme Fournier, Yan Ropert-Coudert and Kath Walker for their roles in identifying the photographed albatross and supplying information.

References:

Cooper, J, & Oatley, T.B. 1985. A first inventory of colour-banding projects in the Subantarctic and Antarctic, 1965-1984. Cormorant 13: 43-54.

Walker, K.P. & Elliott, G. 2006.  At-sea distribution of Gibson’s and Antipodean wandering albatrosses, and relationships with longline fisheries. Notornis 53: 265-290.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 December 2018, updated 07 December 2018

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) has reported on the start of the 2018/19 breeding season of globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi at Taiaroa Head.

Fifty-one eggs have been laid this season compared to a range of 30-35 eggs laid annually in the past five years in New Zealand’s only mainland albatross colony, with an overall maximum since colony inception of 36 nests with eggs.  Because a female-female pair is present, laying two eggs, the number of breeding pairs this season is actually 50.  DOC staff plan to ‘candle’ the eggs to ascertain how many are fertile.  Last season’s extreme weather resulted in a high number of failed nests and only 13 chicks fledging, compared with 26 and 23 chicks in the previous two years.

“Breeding usually takes place on a two-year cycle, however birds whose nests fail sometimes return the following season to breed again and this is the reason for this year’s increased nest and egg numbers.  We know some eggs will be infertile and one egg was found broken in its nest. While we can expect other challenges such as early embryo deaths, we’re still hopeful this will turn out to be our best breeding season yet.”

“Over the last few weeks we have replaced the irrigation system used to cool the albatrosses on hot, dry days by upgrading the piping to endure the increasingly extreme weather conditions.  We also have new egg-candling and supplementary feeding equipment which will improve albatross management.”

The very first breeding attempt to hatch a chick on Tairaroa Head, in 1938; photograph by Lance Richdale (read more here)

In the coming days the live-streaming “Royal Cam” web camera will be in operation directed at a nest as in previous years.

Read more here and here.

Up until yesterday, 132 colour-banded birds have been seen back in the colony.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 December 2018

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed in Hobart, Australia on 26 November between the ACAP Secretariat and the Meeting of the Parties (MoP) to the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA).

High-seas Area of the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement 

The objectives of SIOFA are to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of the fishery resources in the area and to promote the sustainable development of fisheries.  The fisheries Agreement currently has nine Parties.   Signatories to SIOFA include ACAP Parties Australia, France and New Zealand, as well as the European Union.  SIOFA, which entered into force in 2012, has its headquarters in La Réunion, France in the Indian Ocean.

The MoU with SIOFA has as its objective the facilitation of efforts to minimise the incidental by-catch of albatrosses and petrels listed in Annex 1 of ACAP that occur within the Area to which SIOFA applies.  Areas of cooperation listed in the MoU are:

1. development of systems for collecting and analysing data, and exchanging information concerning the bycatch of albatrosses and petrels in the Area consistent with the information-sharing policies of each Participant;
2. exchange of information regarding management approaches relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels;
3. implementation of education and awareness programmes for fishers who operate in areas where albatrosses and petrels may be encountered;
4. design, testing and implementation of albatross and petrel bycatch mitigation measures relevant to fishing operations in the Area;
5. development of training programmes on conservation techniques and measures to mitigate threats affecting albatrosses and petrels; and
6. exchange of expertise, techniques and knowledge relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels in the Area and reciprocal participation with observer status at the relevant meetings of ACAP and the SIOFA MoP, including its subsidiary bodies.

The new MoU, which is set to be in place for six years, joins ten other MoUs ACAP has signed with Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) and other international bodies, most recently with the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) (click here).

With ACAP’s third Executive Secretary, Christine Bogle, in office from this week, the MoU with SIOFA is the last to be signed (with Kristofer Du Rietz, SIOFA Chairperson) by the outgoing Executive Secretary, Marco Favero.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 December 2018