Golden Crownbeard Verbesina encelioides is an aggressive annual plant  that has been introduced and has spread widely over the USA’s Midway Atoll in the Hawaiian North-western  Islands (NWHI).

The yellow-flowered daisy-like plant grows head-high, creating a dense barrier that ACAP-listed Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. albatrus Albatrosses are unable to walk through, much less breed within.  For these birds who do find a place to lay their eggs, the tangle of flowering stems limits airflow to nests, leaving chicks vulnerable to dehydration and to death.

Densely-breeding Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses in the North-western Hawaiian Islands

A few years ago the drought-tolerant and fast-growing Golden Crownbeard covered 80% of the three islands that make up Midway.  In the late 1990s, the US Fish and Wildlife Service began removing the plants by hand spraying.  It is expected that Golden Crownbeard will be eradicated from the smaller Eastern Island and Spit Island by early 2017, with the last seedlings to be removed from the bigger Sand Island by 2018.  As the invasive plant removed native Cyperus grass is being planted. The native grasses allow for more airflow to the nests as well as more breeding space.

Read more here.

Attempts are also being made to eradicate Golden Crownbeard on the NHWI's Kure Atoll.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 October 2015

A session dedicated to top-predator research in the Southern Ocean will be held during the SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) Open Science Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia over 22-26 August 2016.

The session entitled “From the top: higher trophic predators as ecosystem sentinels” is to be co-hosted by Dan Costa (USA), Yan Ropert-Coudert (France), Mercedes Santos (Argentina), Andrew Lowther (Norway) and Jaimie Cleeland (Australia).

Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses, photograph by Aleks Terauds

The session outline follows:

“The recognition of the utility and importance of predators as indicators of the marine ecosystem is such that it is a recurrent topic in SCAR conferences.  Natural (oceanographic, terrestrial, atmospheric, climatic) and anthropogenic forcing (fisheries, pollution...) are taking place at an accelerated pace in the Southern Ocean.  Session 29 will address issues surrounding the responses of higher trophic level predators to these modifications and consequently their appropriateness as sentinels of the ecosystem.  Topics welcome in this session include but are not limited to:

• Animals as a sensor platforms in the marine environment
• Changes in predator-prey relationships and trophic interactions
• Polar species population/ community responses to changes in the Antarctic and/or other latitudes
• Effects of natural (including extreme) and anthropogenic forcing on top predators
• Marine predator conservation policies in a changing environment
• Epidemiology in the Antarctic in response to growing human activities and warming
• Advances in marine predator research methods and technology.

Abstract submission is now open and ends on 4 February next year (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 October 2015

The Portuguese Macaronesian Islands (Azores and Madeira) are vital breeding areas for several species of seabirds, including 85% of the world population of Cory’s Shearwater Calonectris borealis.

Cory's Shearwater ashore, photograph by Paulo Catry

On the Portuguese Azores’ smallest island, Corvo, the LIFE project Safe Islands for Seabirds has evaluated the impact of invasive rodents, feral cats, goats and sheep on Cory’s Shearwater (85% of the species’ population breeds on the Azores and Madeira Archipelagos).

This project found that cats caused the most harm, destroying 84% of all nests and eggs damaged by predators.  Habitat restoration and the construction of Europe’s first predator-proof fence were among the measures used to mitigate the impact on seabirds.

Light pollution – a major threat to juvenile seabirds – is an issue where SPEA (BirdLife in Portugal) is taking action in Macaronesia.  Over the last 20 years in the Azores and five years in Madeira a campaign involving volunteers, local organisations, city halls and SPEA has helped regional governments rescue and release thousands of Cory’s Shearwater juveniles impacted by artificial lights.

Both of Portuguese Madeira’s threatened petrels, the Endangered Zino’s Petrel Pterodroma madeira and the Vulnerable Desertas Petrel P. deserta, have been a top priority for SPEA (in collaboration with the Madeira Natural Park).  SPEA has been working to control or eradicate invasive species such as cats, rabbits and mice, which efforts have contributed to the recovery of the two petrels.

SPEA has also published an inventory of its marine IBA (important Bird Area) network (click here).

Read more here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 October 2015

The 22nd Meeting of the Extended Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) was held last week from 12-15 October in Yeosu, South Korea.  The Agreement was represented at the meeting by its Executive Secretary, Warren Papworth (click here).

Three items of considerable importance to the work of the Agreement were discussed at the Yesou meeting.  The first was the adoption of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organisations.  The objective of the MoU is to facilitate cooperation between the CCSBT and ACAP Secretariats with a view to supporting efforts to minimise the incidental by-catch of albatrosses and petrels listed in Annex 1 of the Agreement caused by fishing for Southern Bluefin Tuna Thunnus maccoyii (SBT).  The Extended Commission noted the valuable contributions of ACAP to the work of the CCSBT and approved the signing of the MoU.

ACAP Executive Secretary Warren Papworth and CCSBT Executive Secretary Robert Kennedy co-sign the MoU between the two bodies

The second item was the proposal from Australia for a binding Resolution to mitigate the impact on seabirds of fishing for Southern Bluefin Tuna.  The CCSBT currently has a non-binding requirement for its Members to follow the conservation measures for ecologically related species (ERS) adopted by other tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (tRFMOs).  It was noted by some CCSBT Members that the CCSBT is the only tuna RFMO without a comprehensive set of binding measures to mitigate the impacts of fishing on seabirds.

All CCSBT Members expressed concern about their fisheries interactions with ecologically related species and expressed their wish to see reductions in the level of these interactions.  There was general support for the Australian proposal with the exception of one Member, which had several concerns with it.  Consensus could not be reached on the Australian proposal and it therefore was not adopted.

The third item of relevance to seabird conservation was the adoption by the Extended Commission of a proposal from Japan for the CCSBT to develop Minimum Performance Requirements (MPRs) for ecologically related species.  Although the Minimum Performance Requirements are non-legally binding, they request Members to:

a) develop, document and implement rules, operating systems, and processes to meet their CCSBT obligations; and

b) report on the effectiveness of the rules, operating systems, and processes to the Commission through the Compliance Committee.

This mechanism will enable the Compliance Committee to review compliance of SBT vessels with ERS conservation requirements and for the outcome of these reviews to be considered in the Commission's Performance Review process.

The adoption of the MoU and the MPRs by the CCSBT Extended Commission are welcome developments and will allow further strengthening of the Commission's ability to reduce interactions with ecologically related species in the Southern Bluefin Tuna fishery.

Warren Papworth, ACAP Executive Secretary, 21 October 2015