On islands all around the Southern Ocean ornithological field researchers are starting the busy season as most of the seabird species return to breed.

Australia’s latest This week at Macquarie Island on-line newsletter reports from the southern Pacific:

“Our TASPAWS rangers, ranger in charge Chris and wildlife ranger Mike, are this week conducting a wildlife census of nesting northern giant petrels.  These giant petrels are present in considerable numbers on Macca, but like albatrosses, they are endangered on the wider front by destructive long line fishing practices.  As a partly scavenging feeder, the population was impacted to a small extent by secondary poisoning after eating the carcasses of poisoned rabbits during the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Program (MIPEP) three years ago, so keeping tabs on their recovering population numbers now is of considerable interest.

Station expeditioners, including supervising comms tech Scotty, field training officer Ian, and station leader Ivor, have been able to enjoy the opportunity to accompany Chris and Mike to get into some beautiful parts of the west coast and enjoy the wildlife experience.  The northern giant petrels breed on the ground in coastal tussock country and in the shelter of coastal rock stacks mostly along the beautiful west coast, and the census team have been counting the nesting birds along the coast from west beach near station, along the featherbed past Handspike Point, and down to Bauer Bay and past to Flat Creek, about one third of the way down the west coast.

The census includes counting the nesting birds and checking to confirm the presence of an egg, and checking also for a leg band on the adult bird.  These giant petrels are the first breeding birds on the island each spring, as they have a very large chick to rear to fledging before autumn, unlike the similarly sized wandering albatrosses which rear their chick through the coming winter to fledge the following year” (click here).

Northern Giant Petrel on Marion Island, photograph by Marienne de Villiers

On South Africa’s Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean field assistants have commenced a series of up to week-long round-island trips moving between eight coastal field huts with a complete census of incubating Northern Giant Petrels Macronectes halli the first on the agenda.

Meanwhile on Gough Island in the South Atlantic the annual relief expedition went ashore earlier this month and the annual island-wide censuses of Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena chicks and incubating Southern Giant Petrels M. giganteus are now complete.  The first egg has appeared in the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos study colony: rather early this year.

Farther south in the Atlantic on Bird Island, British Antarctic Survey personnel have been banding the over 600 Wandering Albatross D. exulans chicks, staking out Northern Giant Petrel study nests and getting ready for the return of Grey-headed T. chrysostoma and Black-browed T. melanophris Albatrosses (click here).

The French will also be busy on their sub-Antarctic islands so it is all go down south!

With thanks to Azwianewi Makhado, Richard Phillips and Peter Ryan for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 September 2014

Mark Carey (Department of Environmental Management and Ecology, La Trobe University,Australia) and colleagues have published “Online Early” in the journal Emu: Austral Ornithology on migration between two hemispheres of the Short-tailed Shearwater Puffinus (=Ardenna) tenuirostris.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Until recent decades, details of the migratory movements of seabirds remained largely unknown owing to the difficulties in following individuals at sea.  Subsequent advances in biologging technology have greatly increased our knowledge of seabird migration and distribution, particularly of highly pelagic species.  Short-tailed Shearwaters (Ardenna tenuirostris) (~500 g) have been studied extensively during their breeding season but our understanding of their movements outside this period remains poor.  Here, we present the first tracks of the trans-equatorial migration of Short-tailed Shearwaters from a colony on Great Dog Island, Tasmania, Australia.  Data were obtained from global location sensors (GLS loggers or geolocators), which enable the estimation of location twice per day based on ambient light levels.  After breeding, tracked Shearwaters flew south of the Antarctic Polar Front to a previously unknown stopover site, where they remained for several weeks, before travelling rapidly northward through the western Pacific Ocean to coastal waters off Japan.  Short-tailed Shearwaters spent the bulk of the northern hemisphere summer, either in this region or further north in the Bering Sea, before returning south through the central Pacific to their breeding sites.  Our results, for the first time, describe in detail the complete migration of this long-lived seabird, reveal individual variation in timing and distribution, and describe the environmental characteristics of their key non-breeding habitats.”

With thanks to Richard Phillips for information.

Short-tailed Shearwater off New Zealand, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Reference:

Carey, M.J., Phillips, R.A., Silk, J.R.D. & Shaffer, S.A. 2014.  Trans-equatorial migration of Short-tailed Shearwaters revealed by geolocators.  Emu doi.org/10.1071/MU13115.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 September 2014

Dr. Johannes Holtzhausen of the Ministry of Fisheries & Marine Resources, Namibia gave a presentation on to the conservation of seabirds, including albatrosses and petrels, in his country at the last day of the Eighth Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee in Punta del Este, Uruguay on Friday.

In his presentation Dr Holtzhausen described to delegates the position of Namibia in the south-east Atlantic with a coastline that embraces both warm and cold waters that support important demersal and pelagic fisheries and a rich bird life.  Significant populations of seabirds include breeding penguins and cormorants on offshore islands and guano platforms, and visiting non-breeding albatrosses and petrels such as the ACAP-listed Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena and the Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos.

The Advisory Committee was informed that Namibia recognized that its fisheries have deleterious effects on its breeding and non-breeding seabirds, both by competing for forage fish and by causing direct mortality on its longliners and trawlers.  It fully intended to address this fishery-induced mortality as soon as possible by formally adopting its National Plan of Action - Seabirds, already drafted and finalized, which awaited only the promulgations of the required regulations.  In the meantime some Namibian fishing vessels had voluntarily adopted the use of mitigation measures, such as the deployment of bird-scaring lines (click here).

Twin bird-scaring lines deployed behind a southern African hake trawler

Photograph by Barry Watkins

Dr Holtzhausen concluded that Namibia wished to move from being a nation with a poor record of killing up to an estimated 30 000 albatrosses and petrels a year in its fisheries to one that could serve as a best-practice example to others.

In another development the Advisory Committee agreed its Chair will send a letter to the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs stating that the committee considers the removal of introduced House Mice Mus musculus from the UK’s Gough Island as a particularly high priority in order to help conserve Tristan Albatrosses, as well as other ACAP-listed seabirds on the island, and wishes those involved every success in an eradication exercise.

This Tristan Albatross chick attacked by mice on Gough Island died soon after

Photograph by Peter Ryan

AC8 ended its deliberations by warmly thanking Uruguay for hosting the Agreement’s meetings over the last two weeks.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 September 2014

As reported from time to time in ACAP Latest News sick and injured albatrosses and petrels taken under care to wildlife rehabilitation centres are released at sea or from the shore if they are deemed to have recovered sufficiently.  ACAP-listed species known to have been released in this way include both species of giant petrels Macronectes spp. and Atlantic Yellow-nosed Thalassarche chlororhynchos, White-capped T. steadi, Wandering Diomedea exulans and Antipodean D. antipodensis Albatrosses.  Countries which have released rehabilitated albatrosses and petrels include Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as the United Kingdom’s Tristan da Cunha.

A young Northern Giant Petrel under care in New Zealand

Such releases run a risk of introducing novel diseases and pathogens to the species’ wild populations, especially if the rehabilitated birds are released at or near their breeding sites.

To reduce this risk the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in 1996 adopted Recommendation XXIV-3 (see below) that urges against the reintroduction of rehabilitated indigenous animals to sub-Antarctic islands and to the Antarctic Continent.  However, such reintroductions apply only to the SCAR area of interest* and do not affect the release of rehabilitated albatrosses and petrels north of the SCAR region as defined.  Such releases carry the implicit assumption that only healthy and disease-free individuals are likely to make it back home.

Recommendation XXIV-3

Concerning re-introduction of indigenous species

Noting that well-meaning attempts have been made to rehabilitate indigenous seals and seabirds, especially penguins, that have been held in captivity, to sub-Antarctic islands and to the Antarctic continent;

Noting further that such re-introductions serve no useful conservation purpose and run the risk of introducing pathogens;

SCAR, therefore, urges National Committees to discourage such practices.

*SCAR’s area of interest includes Antarctica, its offshore islands, and the surrounding Southern Ocean including the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the northern boundary of which is the Subantarctic Front.  Subantarctic islands that lie north of the Subantarctic Front and yet fall into SCAR's area of interest include: Ile Amsterdam, Ile St Paul, Macquarie Island and Gough Island.  http://www.icsu.org/what-we-do/interdisciplinary-bodies/scar/

Selected Literature:

Healy, M. 2007.  Care of giant-petrels from rehabilitation to release.  National Wildlife Rehabilitation Conference Proceedings 2007, Fremantle, Australia.  4 pp.

Vanstreels, R.E.T., Saviolli, J.Y., Ruoppolo, V., Hurtado, R., Adornes, A.C., Canabarro, P.L., Pinho, R., Filho, S. & Serafini, P.P. 2014.  Diretrizes Para a Reabilitação de Albatrozes e Petréls.  12 pp.

SCAR 1997.  SCAR XIV Recommendations.  Polar Record 33 (185): 175-178.

Releasing rehabilitated albatrosses and petrels: avoiding the pathogen problem

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 September 2014