A wild Laysan Albatross incubates its egg in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, photograph by Lindsay Young

A three-year project over 2015/16 to 2017/18 by the environmental NGO Pacific Rim Conservation (PRC) to create a new colony from 50 translocated Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis chicks hand raised within a predator-fenced site at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on the Hawaiian island of Oahu resulted in 46 chicks fledging.  Since commencement of the project to create a breeding site safe from sea-level rise over 900 sightings of wild (= non translocated) Laysan Albatrosses have been made at the site, attracted by decoys, broadcasted calls and the presence of translocated chicks.

With first breeding expected only after three to five years, it is still a little too early to say whether the translocation exercise will end in a new colony for the globally Near Threatened albatross, but it continues to look promising with so far four hand-reared birds from the 2015/16 and 2016/17 cohorts recorded displaying multiple times in the refuge.

In December 2017 a single pair of wild Laysan Albatrosses commenced incubating within the refuge, with three more wild birds observed sitting on empty nests.  In each of the following two seasons two nests were present outside the predator-proof fence.  The PRC now reports on the current 2020/21 breeding season via its Facebook page: “We have not one, but two nests inside the fence!  Both nests are [of] wild birds that came naturally through social attraction, but with all the returning chicks, we are hopeful that more nests are coming”.

Pacific Rim Conservation has been hand-raising three other Hawaiian seabirds within the refuge, including the globally Near Threatened Black-footed Albatross P. nigripes.

The NGO’s seabird conservation work within the refuge is supported by Pacific Islands: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Navy, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation and American Bird Conservancy.

With thanks to Lindsay Young, Pacific Rim Conservation.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 December 2020

An Argentinean side-haul trawler with attending albatrosses around the net

Leo Tamini (Albatross Task Force Argentina, Programa Marino, Aves Argentinas, Buenos Aires, Argentina) and colleagues have published in the journal Bird Conservation International on the incidental capture of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by Argentinean side-haul trawlers.

An entangled Great Shearwater within the trawl net

The paper’s summary follows:

“Between April 2008 and July 2015, we conducted a total of 18 trips on five different side-haul trawlers fishing within the Argentine Exclusive Economic Zone, monitoring 486 hauls. We observed 100% of the hauls and monitored trawl cables for 136.7 hours, about 5% of the trawl effort, to identify the levels of seabird bycatch from net entanglements and collisions with trawl cables. A total of 35 net entanglements of White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis, Great Shearwaters Ardenna gravis, Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris and Southern Royal Albatross Diomedea epomophora were recorded, all of which occurred during the autumn and winter. Additionally, 656 seabird collisions against trawl cables were recorded including 39 heavy, 96 medium and 521 light. Further, we recorded nine Black-browed Albatrosses and two Great Shearwaters potentially dead. Although in the study fishery the number of deaths in the trawl cables could surpass the number of birds incidentally killed in nets, the mortality rate caused by the latter type of interaction far exceeds those observed in nets from other trawl fisheries operating in the Patagonian Shelf. Fortunately, 26% of the seabirds entangled in the net were recovered and released alive, which indicates that awareness and training in safe bird handling and release may improve captured seabird survival rates. The main objectives of this work is to highlight a little-studied source of seabird mortality by entanglement, to generate discussion on potential technical mitigation measures for side-haul trawl fisheries, and to propose crew training in safe handling and release of seabirds as an immediate mitigation measure.”

A Southern Royal Albatross approaches an Argentinian trawl net

Photographs by Leo Tamini

With thanks to Leo Tamini for information and photographs.

Reference:

Tamini, L.L., Chavez, L.N., Dellacasa ,R.F., Crawford, R. & Frere, E.  2020.  Incidental capture of seabirds in Argentinean side-haul trawlers.  Bird Conservation International doi.org/10.1017/S095927092000062.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 December 2020

A Streaked Shearwater at its breeding site

Sarara Azumi (Graduate School of Fisheries Science, Hokkaido University, Japan) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Mammal Research on feral cat predation of Near Threatened Streaked Shearwaters or Oomizunagidori Calonectris leucomelas on Japan’s Mikura Island.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Understanding how invasive predators impact native species is essential for the development of effective control strategies, especially in insular environments where alternative non-native prey species exist. We examined seasonal and spatial shifts in diet of feral cat Felis silvestris catus focusing on the predation on native streaked shearwaters, Calonectris leucomelas, and introduced rats, Rattus rattus and R. norvegicus, which are alternative prey to shearwaters, on Mikura Island, Japan. Streaked shearwaters breed at low elevations on the island from spring to autumn, whereas rats inhabit the island throughout the year, which makes them an alternative prey when native shearwaters are absent. Fecal analysis revealed that feral cats dramatically shifted their diets from introduced rats in winter to streaked shearwaters in seabird-season in low elevation areas of the island, while cats preyed on rats throughout the year at high altitudes on the island. This finding suggests that feral cats selectively prey on shearwaters. This is probably because of their large body size and less cautious behavior, and because introduced rats sustain the cat population when shearwaters are absent. The number of streaked shearwaters killed was estimated to be 313 individuals per cat per year, which represents an indication of top-down effects of feral cats on streaked shearwaters. Further studies on the demographic parameters and interspecific interactions of the three species are required to enable effective cat management for the conservation of streaked shearwaters on this island.”

Reference:

Azumi, S., Watari, Y., Oka, N. & Miyashita, T. 2020.  Seasonal and spatial shifts in feral cat predation on native seabirds vs. non-native rats on Mikura Island, Japan.  Mammal Research   doi.org/10.1007/s13364-020-00544-5.

John Cooper, ACAP Introduction Officer, 15 December 2020

“Lono-makua (Father Lono) is constructed of a tall post with a kiʻi (image) of Lono, pala lei, Ka’upu, and white kapa attached at the cross piece”, image from Lindsay Young

In the main albatrosses breed on out-of-the-way islands, some distance from human habitations.  With some significant exceptions, notably by in the North Pacific where they and their eggs were once heavily exploited for food or feathers and their guano collected, albatross colonies have tended to be left alone from direct persecution. Other past exploitive practices are briefly summarized with selected references listed below.

Sailing ships traversing the Southern Ocean in times past would use a trailing line with a baited hook to catch albatrosses to eat (including any eggs found within them) or just for sport.  Birds were shot at by passengers with no or little chance of their recovery.  Birds brought aboard were used by sailors to make tobacco pouches by skinning their webbed feet, using wing bones for pipe stems, and plucking their feathers for muffs and boas.  On land, albatross chicks and eggs were regularly collected on their sub-Antarctic breeding islands and eaten by sealers and shipwrecked mariners in the 19th century – and their feathers were plucked to make rough bedding to use ashore.  The inhabitants of the Tristan da Cunha islands collected albatrosses and eggs (mainly Atlantic Yellow-nosed Thalassarche chlororhynchos) to eat well into the first half of the 20th Century; they are now fully protected.  Māori and Moriori people visited New Zealand albatross islands for exploitive purposes in the past with requests for takes extending into the second half of the 20th century.  It seems albatrosses (and petrels) that are accidentally or intentionally caught by fishers in Namibian and Peruvian waters may still be cooked and eaten; but the activity was last recorded with any certainty in South African waters in the 1970s.  Old recipes on how to cook albatrosses may be found in the occasional cookbook.  Read more on exploitive use here.

Not many of these past exploitive uses can easily be described as ‘cultural’ but in the Hawaiian islands there is a long history extending to the current day of including albatross parts such as their feathers in cultural practices as informed by ACAP Latest News correspondents.

Beth Flint, US Fish & Wildlife Service writes: “the feathers (actually the whole pelt) of Black-footed Albatrosses or Ka’upu [Phoebastria nigripes] are used to make a standard or staff depicting Lono [Hawaiian god of farming and fertility] that is carried in a procession during the Makahiki season [ancient Hawaiian New Year festival] around the island.  There are cultural practitioners with Federal migratory bird permits that use birds (typically those killed as bycatch in the fisheries) to make the staff with among other things a Ka’upu.”

Lono-makua, image from Beth Flint

"Boxing match before Capt. Cook at Ouhyhee (Hawaii) Sandwich Islands, Thursday, Jan. 28th, 1770 from an unpublished drawing by James Webber, draughtsman to the expedition"

A Lono-makua is visible on the left with suspended albatross skins

Kahili standards either  side of the Iolani Palace thrones, photographs from Hob Osterlund

Hob Osterlund, Kaua’i Albatross Network, has also written from Hawaii: “In terms of Hawaiian culture, I am … aware of the use of Laysan Albatross [P. immutabilis] bones for tattoo needles.  They too are called Mōlī”.  Also of note are the kahili (royal standards) created from Kaʻupu and Mōlī feathers.  These kahili stand on either side of the thrones at Iolani Palace in Honolulu.  The feathers were collected [under Migratory Bird Treaty Act permit] from the bodies of dead albatross chicks on Midway Atoll.  Kahili can also be found in Honolulu’s Queen Emma Summer Palace.  The master feather worker in Hawaiian culture is called a “kiamanu”.  Such a person knows the craft of feather work but also knows the birds in a deeper sense.”

Making a feather lei by members of the Kiamanu Project

Feathers collected under permit from Kure Atoll have been used in workshops by the Kiamanu Project to create lei, mōlī and kahili as part of ensuring such cultural activities are not lost.  The project aims to support the perpetuation of traditional practices and ceremonies that promote responsible environmental kinship and whose tools and feather products were traditionally made from seabirds.

For an unusual ‘cultural’ use of a pair of albatross wings click here.

 References:

Avery, G. 1979.  Results of beach patrols conducted in 1978.  Cormorant 6: 4-12.

Barwell, G. 2014.  Albatross. London: Reaktion Books.  208 pp. [REVIEW]

Cooper, J. 1977.  Editorial.  Cormorant 3: 3.

Crawford, A.B. 1941.  I Went to Tristan.  London: Hodder & Stoughton.  268 pp.

Gerber, H. 1957.  Traditional Cookery of the Cape Malays.  Food Customs and 200 Old Cape Recipes.  Cape Town: A.A. Balkema.  127 pp.

Medway, D G. 1998.  Human-induced mortality of Southern Ocean albatrosses at sea in the 19th century: a brief historical review.  In: Robertson, G. & Gales, R. (Eds).  Albatross Biology and Conservation.  Chipping Norton: Surrey Beatty & Sons.  pp. 189-198.

Murphy, Robert Cushman 1948.  Logbook for Grace.  Whaling Brig Daisy, 1912-1913. London: Robert Hale.  290 pp.

Rauzon, M.J. 2001. Isles of Refuge: Wildlife and History of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.  206 pp.

Robertson, C.J.R. 1991.  Questions on the harvesting of Toroa in the Chatham Islands.  Science and Research Series 35: 1-105.  Wellington: Department of Conservation.

Tickell, W.L.N. 2000.  Albatrosses.  Mountfield: Pica Press.  448 pp.

[Tourist Office] undated.  Recipes from Tristan da Cunha.  Tristan da Cunha: Tourist Office.  29 pp.

With thanks to Beth Flint, Hob Osterlund, Christopher Robertson and Lindsay Young.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 December 2020, uodated 26 December 2020