A graphical abstract of the paper, Fine-scale associations between wandering albatrosses and fisheries in the southwest Atlantic Ocean

New research published open access in the journal Biological Conservation on the globally Vulnerable Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans breeding on Bird Island in the South Atlantic has revealed 55% of tracked birds encountered fishing vessels when foraging, putting them at high risk of bycatch.

The study, which focuses on Wandering Albatrosses’ interactions with fishing vessels, used GPS devices to track 251 of the birds and cross-referenced their movements with known locations of fishing vessels. 

“These detailed analyses provide us with a much more nuanced idea of where the risks are, allowing us to target our conservation efforts much more effectively,” says Richard Phillips, Seabird ecologist at British Antarctic Survey, and co-author of the study. 

Lead Author of the study and Marine Science Manager at BirdLife International, Ana Carneiro and Seabird ecologist at British Antarctic Survey and co-author, Richard Phillips speak about the research and its findings

The paper’s abstract as follows:

"Bycatch is a conservation concern for marine biodiversity, including seabirds. Analyses of spatio-temporal overlap are an important tool for identifying areas and periods where birds are most at risk, but until recently were only possible at coarse scales using aggregated data on fishing effort. Here, we integrated data from loggers that record GPS positions of birds at sea and scan the surroundings to detect vessel-radar transmissions, with the positions of fishing vessels obtained from the automatic identification system, to identify areas, gear types and flag states representing most bycatch risk for wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) of different life-history stages and sexes. We recorded 157 foraging trips of adult breeders, and 34 tracks of sabbatical breeders, 29 immatures and 31 juveniles. Overall, 55 % of birds encountered and 43 % of birds visited fishing vessels (i.e. were within 30 km and 5 km, respectively). Fine-scale overlap was particularly high for breeders during incubation and post-guard chick-rearing when birds travelled to the Patagonian Shelf break. Only 23 % of all encounters involved vessel visits. Our study found the greatest overlap was with set (demersal) longliners, particularly those from South Korea but also including the Falkland Islands, United Kingdom and Chile, and to lower extents, trawlers flagged to Argentina and Uruguay, and drifting (pelagic) longliners flagged to Brazil, Portugal and Taiwan. These fleets vary greatly in terms of bycatch rates. This study highlights the importance of covering the full range of life-history stages, and the advantages of vessel-detecting loggers and fine-scale analyses for improving risk assessments."

A British Antarctic Survey article on the paper is available at their website (link).

Reference:

Carneiro, A.P.B., Clark, B.L., Pearmain, E.J., Clavelle, T., Wood, A.G. & Phillips, R.A. 2022, Fine-scale associations between wandering albatrosses and fisheries in the southwest Atlantic Ocean.  Biological Conservation, 276, 109796,, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109796.

02 December 2022

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Yellow E46 incubates on Gough Island on 12 October 2022 while waiting in vain for its partner J08, drowned six days previously, to return.   By 25 Novenber it had deserted and its nest was empty, photograph by Lucy Dorman and Rebekah Goodwill

Note: ACAP Latest News is pleased to republish with her approval Andrea Angel’s article below that first appeared in BirdLife South Africa’s e-newsletter for November 2022. Some details and links have been added.

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When I got a call from Imvelo Blue, a Cape Town-based fisheries monitoring consultancy, asking me to collect a dead bird brought in by a pelagic longline vessel, I was not surprised.  We work closely with the observers and encourage them to bring back for research purposes birds that have been accidentally caught during fishing operations.  The bird had been caught on 6 October 2022 by the vessel Ubuntu near the start of its fishing trip, some 300 km off Elands Bay on the west coast of South Africa.  I asked if the observer could please meet me at the harbour so I could find out under what circumstances the bird had died.

"There was no observer on board this trip" was the reply. "The captain, Abilio, decided to bring back the bird for the Albatross Task Force to collect.’" This was unusual, as it is not often that a dead bird is brought back voluntarily by fishers.  When I collected it on 19 October I saw it was an Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, with a metal band on the right leg and a bright yellow alpha-numeric band J08 on its left. This meant it was an adult breeding bird and that it could only have come from one of the islands within the Tristan da Cunha Archipelago, more than 2500 km away!

The Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos is endemic to the four Tristan da Cunha islands, where an estimated 26 000 pairs remain.  In the early 1980s, the long-term monitoring of a study colony began on Gough, one of the Tristan da Cunha islands, allowing researchers to follow population trends and study the albatrosses’ behaviour.  These birds, like other similar albatrosses, form long-term pair bonds and breed annually in colonies.  Pairs will lay a single egg during the breeding season, and it takes both parents six months to raise a chick to fledging.

I had seen this during a year I spent on Gough Island, how one of the parents remains behind while the other heads out into the ocean in search of food.  It’s gone for three to four days before coming back to either relieve its partner on an egg or with food for the chick.  So, while my heart sank at the prospect of a partner waiting and the inevitable fate of the egg, the fact that Abilio had brought the bird to us was positive and we made a plan to meet up.

José Abilio de Jesus has been a fisher for most of his life and goes out fishing most months, for 10 to 12 days at a time.   Originally from the island of Madeira in Portugal, he has made Cape Town his home and lives there with his wife and three sons. At the mention of Portugal, I ask if he still speaks the language and for the next hour or so we revert to Portuguese, talking about fishing methods and tuna, but also of orcas and sharks and how seabirds are caught.  I want to know what made him return the bird to us and thank him. After all, he has nothing to gain from it, but for the Albatross Task Force working to reduce seabird deaths, it is a chance to engage, learn and together find ways to ensure fewer birds are caught, one vessel at a time.

 
Andrea Angel and José Abilio de Jesus, owner of the longline vessel Ubuntu, in Cape Town harbour, photograph from the Albatross Task Force

I tell him about the albatrosses and Abilio quickly realises how the slowness of their breeding means that even if small numbers of birds are caught, it has a significant impact on total population numbers.  He tells me he has recently started using the new bird-scaring line that we developed for smaller longline vessels and is very happy with it.  The bird-scaring line acts as a scarecrow, preventing seabirds from accessing the baited hooks before they have sunk out of reach.  Another measure is adding weights directly to the baited hook lines so they can sink faster.  Abilio, however, uses weighted swivels, which can be very hazardous if the line is suddenly cut and a 60-g swivel is flung back like a bullet.  I promise to give him information about safe leads, which have been specially developed to prevent flybacks.  They are costly, but he is keen to try them and suggests he could phase them in slowly over time.  We both parted with new knowledge and mutual appreciation, agreeing to keep communicating.

With the information provided by the bands on the albatross’s legs, Steffen Oppel, Senior Conservation Scientist at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (the UK’s BirdLife partner) was able to tell me that the bird had been banded as an adult on Gough Island in 2016 and they also knew its long-term partner, yellow E46.  Hatched on Gough, it had been banded in 1997.  Researchers currently on the island confirmed that E46 was sitting on an egg around the time its mate had drowned at sea, but that by 25 October its nest was deserted.

Can there be a silver lining to the death of an albatross? I hope so, as only by becoming aware can we change our perceptions, develop trust and ultimately make a difference by changing the way we do things.

Andrea Angel, Albatross Task Force Manager, BirdLife South Africa, 01 December 2022

Previous Royal Cam star chick, Atawhai, daughter of OGK and YRK. She fledged 16 September 2020 at 230 days of age

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DoC) has put the spotlight on a new Northern Royal Albatross pair for its 24-hour live streaming camera known as Royal Cam. The department has chosen the nesting pair of GLY and L for the 2022/23 breeding season. The pair’s fertile egg was laid by L on 4 November 2022.

The Department of Conservation's live streaming Royal Cam

Male, GLY (Green/Lime/Yellow bands) and female, L (Lime band, she has lost her Orange and Yellow bands), have been together since 2019 and are nesting at South Plateau. This is their third breeding attempt having fledged one male chick in 2019 and one female chick in 2021. 

Footage believed to be of L coming in for what turns out to be a dramatic landing (2019)

Nesting pair OGK and YRK were the focus of last year’s breeding season, successfully fledging a female chick, Lilibet, who was named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. Last year, 36 eggs were laid in the breeding season which resulted in 25 Northern Royal Albatross chicks fledging from Taiaroa Head. 

More information on GLY and L as well as previous stars of Royal Cam can be found on the DoC website. The live stream of Royal Cam can be found on the DoC’s YouTube channel or the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bird Cams site. 

30 November 2022

George incubating this month, photograph by Jon Plissner/USFWS

Geraldine, the Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus was seen back on Midway Atoll’s Sand Island on 20-21 October and since then her mate George has been incubating.  A field camera captured their rendezvous moment on the 20th.  On 14 November the pair exchanged incubation duty for the first time this season. They have shown up together on the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge since 2016 (although "Lonesome George" had been seen regularly on the atoll since 2006).. To date the famous pair of “Golden Goonies” has successfully fledged three chicks since their first known meeting in 2016, but had been unsuccessful in the 2021/22 breeding season as the egg did not hatch (click here).

Reunited: Field camera photograph of George and Geraldine on 20 October 2022, photograph from the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

 In addition to the famous pair, two more Short-tailed Albatrosses have been seen on Sand Island this month.  George and Geraldine’s 2019 chick (banded red AA08) was sighted again, following previous visits in 2021 and earlier this year (click here).  AA08 was the pair’s first chick.  A sub-adult banded as a chick on Japan’s Torishima, one year after Geraldine fledged from there in 2008, was spotted  in a “nearby forest along West Beach”. George is also from Torishima,  fledging in 2003.

USFWS biologists Keely Hassett (left) and Kelly Goodale band the downy Short-tailed Albatross chick with Red AA08 on 6 May 2019, photographs by Jon Pilssner

 Follow the fortunes of George and Geraldine on Midway since 2018 in 18 separate posts to ACAP Latest News.

News from the Facebook page of the Friends of Midway Atoll Natonal Wildlife Refuge.

John Cooper, ACAP News Correspondent, 29 November 2022