The young Antipodean Albatross spreads its wings after release, photograph by  Dan Burgin, Wildlife Management International (WMIL)

A young Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis assigned to the gibsoni subspecies was brought in by the crew two days after landing aboard the fishing vessel Santa Rosa off the West Coast to the EcoWorld Aquarium & Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Picton, South Island, New Zealand.  Mike Bell of Wildlife Management International (WMIL) states on the Centre's Facebook page: “She is a young female albatross from this years breeding season. She was obviously very lethargic and weighed only 4.9 kg when she should be at about 7 kg in weight”.  Affectionately named Rosa, the albatross spent three weeks in captivity while it got back to a healthy weight, being fed on donated salmon and squid.  Following banding, the albatross was released on 29 March out at sea off the coast of Kaikoura from an Albatross Encounter Kaikoura tour vessel by Mike Bell and Dan Burgin of WMIL.

According to Wildlife Management International’s Facebook page the globally Endangered and Nationally Critical bird “spent a good amount of time bathing before swimming off.  Here’s hoping we get a band resighting at her breeding colony in years to come, but she has a long way to go still facing a myriad of threats out at sea.”  Read more here.

The Antipodean Albatross gets released at sea, photographs by Tracy McKeown, Albatross Encounter Kaikoura

A similar-looking young Antipodean Albatross “very dehydrated, very hungry and near death” on arrival was treated at New Zealand's South Island Wildlife Hospital, but died while still in care (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 April 2021, updated 05  April 2021

Infographic from the report

Jason Jannot (Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington, USA) and colleagues have produced a report that considers seabird bycatch in United States west coast fisheries from 2002 to 2018, including of the three North Pacific albatrosses.

The report’s Executive Summary follows, slightly shortened with reference citations and illustrations removed:

“The California Current marine ecosystem on the U.S. West Coast (Washington, Oregon, and California) supports a diversity of marine organisms, including seabirds. This report summarizes interactions between U.S. West Coast fisheries and seabirds, and presents estimates of fleetwide seabird bycatch—based on data from fisheries and federal observer programs—for the years 2002–18.

Lethal and nonlethal interactions, as well as sightings, are presented for six fisheries using hook-and-line gear, eight fisheries using trawl gear, and five fisheries using pot gear. In 2017, three new fisheries were added for observation by the Northwest Fisheries Science Center: the Pacific halibut hook-and-line fishery, the California ridgeback prawn trawl fishery, and the California sea cucumber trawl fishery. The Pacific halibut fishery had relatively high black-footed albatross bycatch, and the California ridgeback prawn fishery had relatively high bycatch of Brandt’s cormorant, compared to other fisheries. No birds were observed as bycatch in the California sea cucumber fishery. Recreational and tribal fisheries are not covered in this report.

A total of 47 bird species interacted with or were sighted in these fisheries over the 2002–18 period, up from 41 in the last report). Thirteen species are considered endangered, threatened, vulnerable, or near-threatened by the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) or the International Union for Conservation. The remaining 34 species are not listed, or are categorized as “least concern” (i.e., not at risk).

All three North Pacific albatross species interact with these fisheries: black-footed, Laysan, and the ESA-listed short-tailed albatross. To date, only one short-tailed albatross has been observed taken by these fisheries, and the mean estimated mortality for most years is less than one individual per year. However, black-footed albatross are caught annually in a number of fisheries reported here, primarily hook-and-line fisheries. Laysan albatross have occasionally been taken by fisheries reported here, but the mortalities are few and infrequent. The estimated mean mortalities of black-footed plus Laysan albatross ranged from a low of 60.77 individuals in 2002 to a high of 139.58 individuals in 2010. The 2018 estimate, across fisheries, for black-footed and Laysan albatross was 88.69 individuals. Other birds (i.e., nonalbatross) showed a peak in mortality during 2009 of 439.76 birds taken, and the 2018 mean estimated mortality of other birds was 296.48.

Hook-and-line fisheries account for the largest number of albatrosses taken among the three gear categories (hook-and-line, trawl, pot). Over the last six years, hook-and-line fisheries accounted for 50–63% of seabird mortality, followed by trawl fisheries at 31–45%, and pot fisheries at 2–6% of bycatch. The largest number of albatross taken comes from limited entry (LE) sablefish vessels fishing hook-and-line gears. This prompted regulations requiring streamer lines on hook-and-line vessels fishing in U.S. West Coast groundfish fisheries; these were implemented in December 2015 for vessels 55 ft or longer. Beginning in January 2020, all vessels 26 ft or longer fishing with hook-and-line gear north of lat 36°N must use streamer lines during daylight hours (1 hr before sunrise to 1 hr after sunset). Alternatively, night-setting (1 hr after sunset to 1 hr before sunrise) can be used to reduce seabird bycatch on hook-and-line vessels in lieu of streamer lines.

Bycatch of nonalbatross species is generally split evenly between hook-and-line and trawl gears. Seabird mortality is likely underestimated on trawl vessels, because seabirds can be killed or injured by striking cables that exit aft of the vessel during trawling. These cables are not routinely monitored in these fisheries. Significant levels of bycatch, especially of albatross, have been recorded in similar trawl fisheries around the globe. In this report, we provide estimates of seabird mortality by cable strikes in the at-sea hake catcher–processor fleet. Pot gears appear to catch very few seabirds.

In earlier versions of this report we used ratios to estimate seabird bycatch. In the previous report), we implemented an improved method for bycatch estimation. We applied Bayesian models to estimate total bycatch and associated error for fisheries with less than 100% observer monitoring. These methods have been used with other rare bycatch species, including cetaceans, delphinids, pinnipeds, sea turtles, and sharks.). The Bayesian method better estimates uncertainty and provides fleetwide estimates even in years when no seabird mortality was recorded by fisheries observers.

In the previous report, we assumed the estimated bycatch rate, q, was constant through time. In this report, we explicitly test for constant bycatch rate. We also compare models using alternative measures of fishing effort (number of gear deployments, number of gear units, amount of landed catch) and alternative distributions of the bycatch process (Poisson versus negative binomial). The results presented here represent the optimal model when comparing these parameters.”

Reference:

Jannot, J.E., Wuest, A., Good, T.P., Somers, K.A., Tuttle, V.J., Richerson, K.E., Shama, R.S. & McVeigh, J.T. 2021. Seabird Bycatch in U.S. West Coast Fisheries, 2002–18..  U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NWFSC-165.  64 pp. doi.org/10.25923/78vk-v149.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 April 2021

Infographic from the Facebook page of Pacific Rim Conservation

Rachael Orben (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Newport, USA) and colleagues have published open access in the Journal of Applied Ecology on associations between the three species of North Pacific albatrosses and fishing vessels.

The paper’s lengthy abstract follows:

“Understanding encounters between marine predators and fisheries across national borders and outside national jurisdictions offers new perspectives on unwanted interactions to inform ocean management and predator conservation. Although seabird–fisheries overlap has been documented at many scales, remote identification of vessel encounters has lagged because vessel movement data often are lacking.

Here, we reveal albatrosses–fisheries associations throughout the North Pacific Ocean. We identified commercial fishing operations using Global Fishing Watch data and algorithms to detect fishing vessels. We compiled GPS tracks of adult black‐footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan Phoebastria immutabilis albatrosses, and juvenile short‐tailed albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus. We quantified albatrosses‐vessel encounters based on the assumed distance that birds perceive a vessel (≤30 km), and associations when birds approached vessels (≤3 km). For each event we quantified bird behaviour, environmental conditions and vessel characteristics and then applied Boosted Regression Tree models to identify drivers and the duration of these associations.

In regions of greater fishing effort short‐tailed and Laysan albatrosses associated with fishing vessels more frequently. However, fishing method (e.g. longline, trawl) and flag nation did not influence association prevalence nor the duration short‐tailed albatrosses attended fishing vessels. Laysan albatrosses were more likely to approach longer vessels. Black‐footed albatrosses were the most likely to approach vessels (61.9%), but limited vessel encounters (n = 21) prevented evaluation of meaningful explanatory models for this species of high bycatch concern.

Temporal variables (time of day and month) and bird behavioural state helped explain when short‐tailed albatrosses were in close proximity to a vessel, but environmental conditions were more important for explaining interaction duration. Laysan albatrosses were more likely to associate with vessels while searching and during the last 60% (by time) of their trips.

Our results provide specific species–fisheries insight regarding contributing factors of high‐risk associations that could lead to bycatch of albatrosses within national waters and on the high seas.

Policy implications. Given the availability of Global Fishing Watch data, our analysis can be applied to other marine predators—if tracking data are available—to identify spatio‐temporal associations, thus enabling predictive modelling and targeted mitigation measures.”

Read a popular account of the publication by the senior author.

Reference:

Orben, R.A., Adams, J., Hester, M., Shaffer, S.A., Suryan, R., Deguchi, T., Ozaki, K., Sato, F., Young, L.C., Clatterbuck, C., Conners, M.G., Kroodsma, D.A. & Torres, L.G. 2021.  Across borders: external factors and prior behavior influence North Pacific albatross associations with fishing vessels.  Journal of Applied Ecology.  doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13849.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 April 2021

Mark Tasker, annual Wandering Albatross count, Prion Island, 2012

Mark Tasker, who resides in Scotland, is a retired Head of Marine Advice at the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and a long-time veteran of the international Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP).  He has served as head or as a member of the UK Delegation to all but one ACAP meeting since the Agreement's first in 2004, and to negotiation meetings prior to that, is a past Chair and Vice Chair of ACAP’s Advisory Committee and is currently Convenor of the ACAP Taxonomy Working Group.  Mark has worked with albatrosses primarily in the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas* and on South Georgia/Islas Georgias del Sur*, and he managed the work of the JNCC’s ACAP Coordinator for the South Atlantic. The Coordinator from 2008-2013 was Anton Wolfaardt, now the Manager of the Mouse-Free Marion Project that aims to rid the island of its albatross-killing House Mice during the austral winter of 2023.  In 2011/12 Mark and Anton worked together trapping rats on South Georgia/ Islas Georgias del Sur* - now thankfully rodent free following an eradication campaign by “Team Rat”.

“Mark (right) is my previous boss, with whom I spent an enjoyable couple of months in 2011/12 trapping rats on South Georgia” – Anton Wolfaardt (left)

Mark writes to ACAP Latest News: “Albatrosses are one of the pinnacles of evolution in harnessing the winds to search much of the world’s oceans for food.  Sadly, human activities are putting them at risk of extinction.  Among these (often accidental) activities is the introduction of non-native organisms; removing these from islands is among the most important things we can do to advance the conservation of these magnificent seabirds.”  With his experience and passion for procellariiform seabirds and the restoration of their island habitats by removing introduced predators, it is no great surprise, but nevertheless most welcome news, that he is now supporting the attempt to rid South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion Island of its alien predators.  Mark’s generous sponsorship will allow the project to treat 25 hectares of the 29 000-ha island come 2023.  So far 738 individuals have sponsored 1967 hectares, which is only 6.56% of the island’s total area - so there is still a long way to go to make the project a reality.  Mark D. Anderson, CEO of BirdLife South Africa, thanked Mark for his generous sponsorship, and the many others who have already contributed, saying that "these contributions will help us secure a significant conservation legacy for Marion Island's seabirds."

ACAP’s Information Officer (second from left) proposes the Sponsor a Hectare scheme to BirdLife South Africa’s marine team

The Sponsor a Hectare scheme was first proposed by ACAP’s Information Officer, inspired by the crowd-funding success of the Million Dollar Mouse project to eradicate mice on New Zealand’s Antipodes Island.  His own sponsorship towards a Mouse-Free Marion does not come close to matching Mark’s but watch this space!

A Grey-headed Albatross chick “scalped’ by House Mice on Marion Island; photograph from the FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town

The Mouse-Free Marion Non-Profit Company has been established to initiate and implement the project, which is being undertaken as a partnership between the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment and BirdLife South Africa.  Click here to make your own sponsorship at South African Rands 1000 or US Dollars 70 a hectare.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 April 2021

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.