Still at risk from longlines: a breeding Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans on Bird Island in the South Atlantic

Martin Collins (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK) and colleagues have published in the journal Marine Policy on the history of mitigating the impact on seabirds of a longline fishery for Patagonian Toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides in the South Atlantic.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Seabird mortality in fisheries is a global problem and a major driver of the continued decline of many seabird populations. Unless appropriate mitigation is in place, longline fishing can cause high levels of seabird mortality. Here we describe the development and implementation of seabird mitigation measures in the Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides fishery around the sub-Antarctic islands of South Georgia (CCAMLR Subarea 48.3), since the fishery began in the late 1980s. The initial high bycatch mortality (>5000 birds / 0.59 birds per 1000 hooks in 1996) has been reduced to negligible levels (<0.01 per 1000 hooks) through implementation of a suite of mitigation measures and a high level of compliance. The principal species killed in the fishery were black-browed albatross and white-chinned petrels, with most of the mortality occurring in April and early May. Whilst the synchronous introduction of much of the mitigation makes it is difficult to confirm which measures have been most effective, there is compelling evidence that the restriction of the fishery to the austral winter was a major factor. Night-setting and line-weighting measures have also been important in reducing mortality and the 100% observer coverage in the fishery has encouraged high levels of compliance. We also consider how different measures may be effective for different species and how novel measures, such as the use of marked hooks, have helped encourage compliance. The mitigation measures developed in the South Georgia fishery have subsequently been adopted in other CCAMLR fisheries and have helped guide global best practice in addressing seabird bycatch.”

With thanks to Richard Phillips, British Antarctic Survey.

Reference:

Collins, M.A., Hollyman, P.R., Clark J., Soeffker, M., Yates, O. & Phillips, R.A. 2021.  Mitigating the impact of longline fisheries on seabirds: lessons learned from the South Georgia Patagonian toothfish fishery (CCAMLR Subarea 48.3).  Marine Policy 131. doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104618.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 June 2021

Post No. 7 for ‘WADWEEK2021’ 

Tristan Albatrosses display on Gough Island, photograph and buff design by Michelle Risi

Today’s World Albatross Day marks the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) in 2001.  The inaugural World Albatross Day was held on this day last year with the theme “Eradicating Island Pests”.  To mark the second World Albatross Day, this year’s selected theme is “Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries”.

That thousands of albatrosses continue to die every year as a result of fishing operations is probably the major threat albatrosses face.  These magnificent birds get caught on hooks, become entangled in nets and collide with trawl cables, leading to death by drowning or injury.  Solutions are available to address this conservation crisis.  This year’s World Albatross Day aims to draw attention to the problem and to highlight best-practice solutions, such as the use of bird-scaring lines in both longline and trawl fisheries, line weighting and night setting or use of hook-shielding devices by longliners and management of offal discharge by trawlers.

The two Critically Endangered albatrosses, the Tristan Diomedea dabbenena of the UK’s Gough Island and the Waved Phoebastria irrorata from Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, have been chosen to serve as ‘feature species’ to draw attention to the continuing threats all the world’s 22 species of albatrosses face at sea from fisheries.  ACAP has produced infographics of them that illustrate the at-sea threats they face.  An infographic has also been produced for the Vulnerable Wandering Albatross D. exulans that as well as from fisheries is threatened by introduced feral cats and rodents on some of its breeding islands.

In addition to the infographics in the three official ACAP languages of English, French and Spanish, ACAP has produced downloadable logos, posters and a music video to mark ‘WAD2021’.  Seven posts to ACAP Latest News, culminating in today’s, constitute ‘WADWEEK2021’ and go into more detail on World Albatross Day activities by ACAP and by other bodies around the world.  ACAP website posts about World Albatross Day have been shared to its Facebook Page.

Click here to access ACAP’s media statement for ‘WAD2021’ in the three official languages and in Portuguese.  Media statements marking World Albatross Day by BirdLife South Africa and the New Zealand Acting Minister of Conservation and from Brazil’s Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Aves Silvestres give more information on activities and priorities for action related to the conservation of albatrosses in their countries, as does Chile’s Subsecretaría de Pesca y Acuicultura (SUBPESCA).  Many more reports on ‘WAD2021” activities from ACAP Parties can be found on ACAP’s Facebook page and in ACAP Latest News.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 June 2021

Post No. 6 for ‘WADWEEK2021’

In the air and ready to fledge with its metal and colour bands: a translocated Black-footed Albatross on Isla Guadalupe - with a guano-splattered decoy watching on

The first globally Near Threatened Black-footed Albatross Phoebastria nigripes hatched and raised in Mexico fledged yesterday from Isla Guadalupe, just a few days before World Albatross Day on the 19th.  Named ‘Snowflake’, “it will wander around the Pacific Ocean for the next three to five years, after which it will come back to Guadalupe to search for a mate, and hopefully begin nesting on the island in 7-9 years, making it its new home.”

A translocated Black-footed Albatross chick with its Laysan Albatross foster parent on Isla Guadalupe

The fledgling was moved as an egg as part of a binational Black-footed Albatross translocation project from the USA’s Midway Atoll in Hawaii to Isla Guadalupe in Mexico, where it was hatched and raised by Laysan Albatross P. immutabilis foster parents (whose own egg was deemed infertile).  Two NGOs, Hawaii’s Pacific Rim Conservation (PRC) and Mexico’s Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI), coordinated efforts with the federal governments of both countries to transfer 21 eggs (of which 18 hatched) and nine chicks (which have been hand raised) between the two islands.

“In the following days, one by one, the remaining 26 fully feathered chicks will begin their first flight to adulthood.  We wish them all the best, hoping to see them again in a few years. Guadalupe Island and all of us will be waiting for you with open arms.”  For the next couple of years, the binational team aims to move up to 42 eggs and 25 chicks per year in order to have at least 100 individuals to form a new breeding colony on Guadalupe.

The ACAP Secretariat comments on the significance of the translocation project

The significance comes from its international nature.  Whereas chicks of three species of albatrosses have been successfully translocated by air over long distances previously within Japan and the USA, this is the first time a translocation has involved two countries.  If successful, resulting in the establishment of a new colony, an Isla Guadalupe population of Black-footed Albatrosses will represent a substantial increase in the species’ population distribution, add a second albatross to the list of Mexican breeding species and be one safe from projected sea-level rise.

Further, establishment of a Black-footed Albatross breeding colony on Isla Guadalupe is seen as giving increased value to Mexico becoming a Party to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) and contributing to albatross conservation efforts at a global level.  At present, Mexico attends ACAP meetings as an observer.

News and photographs by J.A. Soriano from Pacific Rim Conservation and GECI Facebook pages.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 June 2021

 Post No. 5 for ‘WADWEEK2021’

AAD for WAD 2021: socially distanced Australian Antarctic Division staff take flight with nearly-life-sized Wandering Albatross banners for WAD 2021
Banner by the AAD Media & Communications team, albatross photograph by Mike Double, group photograph by Dan Broun

To help raise awareness and celebrate this year’s World Albatross Day theme, ‘Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries’ and 20 years since signature of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) held a morning tea and Albicake Bake Off last week.  AAD staff created six cakes, four of which are illustrated here, and also raised a banner at the AAD Headquarters in Kingston, Tasmania in support of this important message.

Mandi Livesey of the Division (and until recently ACAP’s Acting National Contact Point for ACAP) writes “Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries” highlights the success of some fisheries to achieve huge reductions in albatross bycatch, but also the need to constantly evolve fishing practices and management because the crisis continues with thousands of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters still dying each year from fishing activities.  The AAD continues to support all efforts for the conservation of albatrosses including through our long-standing close cooperation with the ACAP Secretariat, which is hosted by Tasmania in Hobart.”

The winning cake: a vanilla Black-browed Albatross chick with Persian fairy floss feathers by Mandi Livesey

Fittingly, Mandi’s own entry of a Black browed Albatross chick was judged the winner by popular choice.  She informs ACAP Latest News that “all of them were cut up and eaten – mostly all gone after the morning tea.”

From left: a gluten-free vanilla Royal Albatross cake by Andrea Polanowski;  Southern Ocean fishing vessel with bird-friendly tori or bird-scaring lines by Gillian Slocum; Vanilla butter cream Wandering Albatross by Lihini Weragoda; cake photographs by Simon Payne

The AAD’s Bake Off follows on last year’s international effort organized by ACAP which proved popular with some really amazing entries.  It seems Albicake Bake Offs should become a regular feature of World Albatross Day celebrations so a repeat of the international competition in 2022 is on the cards.  The ACAP Information Officer regrets he could not accept his own invitation to attend the AAD's Bake Off tea in person, living as he does an ocean away in Cape Town, South Africa.  A virtual slice of cake does not quite hit the spot!  In compensation ACAP was well represented at the tea by its Executive Secretary, Christine Bogle and “ACAP Artist in Residence” Namo Niumim who created the ACAP Infographics of Tristan, Wandering and Waved Albatrosses to mark ‘WAD2021’.

With thanks to Jaimie Cleeland & Mandi Livesey, Australian Antarctic Division.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 June 2021