Michael Force (Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California, USA) and colleagues have published in the journal Polar Biology on seabirds, including ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels, in the Drake Passage between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Drake Passage, extending from the southern tip of South America to the northern Antarctic Peninsula, is a dynamic oceanographic region with well-defined habitats delineated by the three strong frontal jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC).  Here, we describe seabird species distribution patterns across Drake Passage and test the hypothesis that species assemblages broadly reflect physical characteristics of the hydrographic fronts.  Strip-transect seabird surveys were conducted between Tierra del Fuego and the South Shetland Islands (700 km track line) during January–March (austral summer) over 14 years (48 crossings).  Locations of the latitudinally variable fronts were assessed using in situ shipboard data on sea surface temperature and salinity; areas of high variance were used to indicate frontal features.  We quantified five distinct species assemblages that correspond to biogeographic regions and relate to the positions of the Sub-Antarctic Front, Polar Front and ACC Southern Front.  Dense seabird concentrations coincided with regions characterized by highly variable sea surface temperature and salinity, suggesting that associated species assemblages reflect the mesoscale hydrographic surface as indicated by sea surface conditions.”

Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses in Antarctic waters, photograph by John Chardine

Reference:

Force,M.P., Santora, J.A., Reiss, C.S. & Loeb, V.L.  2014.  Seabird species assemblages reflect hydrographic and biogeographic zones within Drake Passage.  Polar Biology DOI 10.1007/s00300-014-1594-7.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 December 2014

‘Green Blue Red’ and ‘Yellow Blue Orange’ are currently the oldest Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi on view from the observatory at the Royal Albatross Centre on Taiaroa Head near Dunedin, New Zealand (click here).

The paired birds have constructed their nest for the 2014/15 breeding season and are currently incubating their 10th egg, of which seven have been successful.  At 27 years, they are the oldest pair of Northern Royal Albatrosses on view and have set-up their nest on the Quarry Track in exactly the same place as where they successfully raised a chick in the 2012/13 season.

The 27-year old paired birds at their nest

Their previous chick fledged with an insufficient amount of wind behind, causing it to crash land just off the coast of Taiaroa Head.  A Department of Conservation ranger was luckily on hand to pick the fledgling out of the surf to safety in his boat before a more successful take-off later in the day.

Tairaoa Head was once the home of the World’s then oldest known albatross, Grandma, who reached an estimated 60 years (click here).  The late Grandma has now been surpassed in the extreme age stakes by Wisdom, a well-known Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis on Midway Atoll, now breeding once more in what is thought to be her 64th year (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 December 2014

The Australian Government’s Threatened Species Commissioner has made AUD 300 000 available to expand rodent control (which commenced in 1992) in and outside of Norfolk Island National Park on Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean (click here).  This action is set to help protect the endemic Norfolk Island Green Parrot Cyanoramphus cookii which has declined in numbers to no more than a couple of hundred individuals, now largely restricted to the island’s national park and adjacent forested areas and orchards (click here).  Predation by feral Domestic Cats Felis catus and Black Rattus rattus and Polynesian R. exulans Rats are considered causative factors in the decline.  House Mice Mus musculus are also present.

The “funding will enhance the rat baiting program across Norfolk Island National Park and expand it beyond the park’s borders.  This will complement work to tackle feral cats [trapping of cats started in1989 within the park] and substantially reduce direct and indirect impacts of rats on native species and their habitats. The project will:

• increase the number of rodent bait stations across Norfolk Island National Park, including filling gaps in the park’s existing rat baiting network
• expand the existing network of bait stations to incorporate part of the bordering forestry reserve
• establish a program of ongoing servicing and monitoring to cover the expanded bait station network.”

The enhanced control programme is expected to help the island’s ground-nesting seabirds, including the Wedge-tailed Shearwater Puffinus pacificus with “several hundred thousand” reported in 1981 to be present.  However, the island’s population is thought to have declined significantly since the 1980s due to attacks by feral cats.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater, photograph by Alan Burger

Little Shearwaters P. assimilis (of the nominate race) were present at Anson Point on Norfolk Island in the 1970s but breeding is now confined to the much smaller and predator-free Phillip and Nepean Islands in the Norfolk Island group (where Wedge-tailed Shearwaters also breed).  According to the latest edition of the Australian Action Plan for Birds their disappearance from the main island is thought due to depredation by the island’s rats.  Flesh-footed Shearwaters P. carnepeis are also thought to breed on Phillip Island in small numbers.  In addition, three species of Pterodroma petrels breed on Phillip Island.

Norfolk Island (35 km²) is an external territory of the Commonwealth of Australia.  It has a human population of 2300.  The 6.5-km²forested Norfolk Island National Park centred on Mount Pitt was declared in 1985; it includes Phillip Island (added in 1996).

With thanks to Barry Baker for information.

Selected Literature:

Director of National Parks 2008.  Norfolk Island National Park and Norfolk Island Botanic Garden Management Plan 2008-2018.  Canberra: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.  96 pp.

Director of National Parks. 2010.  Norfolk Island Region Threatened Species Recovery Plan. Canberra: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.  183 pp.

Garnett, S.T., Szabo, J.K. & Dutson, G. 2011.  The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010.  Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing.  456 pp.

Priddel, D., Carlile, N., Evans, O., Evans, B. & McCoy, H. 2010.  A review of the seabirds of Phillip Island in the Norfolk Island Group.  Notornis 57: 113-127.

Tarburton, M.K. 1981.  Seabirds nesting on Norfolk Island.  Notornis 28: 209-211.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 December 2014

Applications are invited for the post of Executive Secretary in the Secretariat of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP).  The ACAP Secretariat is an Intergovernmental Organisation that supports the work of the Agreement in seeking to achieve and maintain a favourable conservation status for albatrosses and petrels.  The Secretariat’s Headquarters are located in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

The Executive Secretary will be appointed in accordance with the terms and conditions determined by the Agreement’s staff regulations.  Appointment will be for a term of four years, subject to a satisfactory performance evaluation at the end of the first year of employment.  The successful applicant shall be eligible for reappointment for one additional term, with the total length of employment not exceeding eight years.  A remuneration package consists of a salary in a range that, at present, commences at AU$ 140 282.  This will be subject to review in 2015.  Allowances including superannuation will be provided to the successful applicant.

Applications are invited from persons meeting the following criteria:

Essential criteria

1. Must be a national of an ACAP Party.

2. Experience or detailed knowledge of the operations of international intergovernmental organizations.

3. Representational and promotional skills.

4. Fluency in one of the ACAP official languages (English, French or Spanish).

5. Demonstration of an appropriate level of managerial experience and proven competence, including: (a) the preparation of financial budgets and the management of expenditures, and (b) the organisation of meetings and provision of Secretariat support for high level committees.

Desirable criteria

6. Familiarity with the conservation of albatrosses and petrels.

7. Relevant experience and qualifications.

8. Proficiency in the ACAP languages.

Applications addressing the above selection criteria should be emailed to the Executive Secretary, Warren Papworth (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) by close of business 31 December 2014.  Applicants are requested to complete the personal information form available on the ACAP home page and to provide a statement (maximum 1500 words) in support of their application addressing the above selection criteria.

All applications will be screened by an ACAP panel and those successful at the initial screening will be invited to complete a full application (for submission by 9 March 2015).  These will be reviewed and follow-up interviews by telephone may occur.  A final shortlist of two candidates will be invited to attend a face-to-face interview in Santa Cruz, Spain on 3 May 2015.

ACAP Secretariat, 15 December 2014