Janice Molloy, photograph from the Southern Seabirds Trust

Janice Molloy of Waikanae has been made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to wildlife conservation in King Charles III’s 2025 New Year Honours List.  Janice is Convenor of the environmental NGO Southern Seabirds Trust.

Her citation follows:

“Ms Janice Molloy has been supporting fishers and the wider seafood industry in their journey towards seabird-safe fishing for more than 20 years.

Ms Molloy was instrumental in bringing together fishing industry leaders, environmental organisations, government agencies, scientists, and recreational fishing interests in 2002, leading to the establishment of the Southern Seabirds Trust.  She has been Convenor of the Trust since its establishment, promoting a collaborative approach to reduce the capture of New Zealand’s seabirds through fishing activities.  Under her guidance, the Trust encourages fishers to take ownership of the problem and find solutions by giving them the knowledge and the practical support they need to address seabird captures.  This has created change in fishing practices, demonstrating that conservation through cooperation can achieve results.  Ms Molloy’s contributions have had direct implications for coastal communities in New Zealand, helped the New Zealand commercial fishing industry improve its environmental performance, and assisted the wider international community in its responsibility for the sustainable management of the world’s oceans and fisheries.”

The Southern Seabirds Trust writes on its Facebook page that “it is very proud of our Convenor Janice Molloy’s appointment as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.  Janice has been supporting fishers and the wider seafood industry in their journey towards seabird-safe fishing for more than 20 years.”

The ACAP Secretariat congratulates Janice on this well-deserved award, which reflects her long-standing commitment to, and promotion of, seabird-safe fisheries.

In the same honours list Julian Fitter, co-author of the 2008 book ‘Albatross, Their World Their Ways’ has also been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to conservation (click here).

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 10 January 2025

           
The publication’s graphical abstract

Guilherme dos Santos Lima (Environmental Studies Center, São Paulo State University, Rio Claro, Brazil) and colleagues have published in the journal Environmental Pollution on levels of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in seabirds from the south-western Atlantic Ocean, including Atlantic Yellow-nosed Thalassarche chlororhynchos and Black-browed T. melanophris Albatrosses and Southern Giant Macronectes giganteus and White-chinned Procellaria aequinoctialis Petrels.

A Southern Giant Petrel guards its chick, artwork by Leigh Wolfaardt

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Seabirds are particularly susceptible to potentially toxic elements (PTEs) due to the tendency of biomagnification of some elements, thus serving as potential bioindicators for assessing environmental health. In this study, we analyzed As, Cd, Cu and Zn concentrations in liver samples from nine seabird species (51 specimens) collected along the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Results revealed substantial variations in PTE concentrations among species, with taxonomic orders influencing accumulation patterns. The observed PTE concentrations in seabirds suggest potential trends in bioaccumulation, influenced by species-specific behaviors and diets. For instance, As ranged from 0.47 mg kg⁻¹ in Nannopterum brasilianus to 70.25 mg kg⁻¹ in Thalassarche melanophris, while Cd ranged from 0.01 mg kg⁻¹ in N. brasilianus to 232.73 mg kg⁻¹ in Spheniscus magellanicus. Generalized Linear Model (GLM) results identified body length and species as the main factors influencing PTE concentrations for most elements. Spearman correlation analysis revealed a strong positive correlation between Cd and Cu (ρ = 0.68), Cd and Zn (ρ = 0.67) and between Zn and Cu (ρ = 0.56), suggesting that seabirds with higher Cd levels also tend to have higher Cu and Zn concentrations. Multivariate statistical analysis demonstrated distinct PTE compositions among bird groups. Although significant variations in total concentrations of elements like Zn and Cu were observed among species, the relative contributions of each element to the overall load in the organism showed a convergence in proportions. This underscores the need for further research on homeostatic processes and the potential impacts of environmental PTEs on seabird health.”

With thanks to Patricia Serafini.

Reference:

dos Santos Lima, G., Suarez, C.A., Gemeiner, H., Serafini, P.P., Alves de Deus, J.P., Viana, J.L.M. & Menegario, A.A. 2025.  Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in seabirds foraging across a heterogeneous landscape: cross-species bioaccumulation patterns.  Environmental Pollution 367. 125609.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 09 January 2025

A Laysan Albatross incubates within the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge in the current 2024/25 breeding season, photograph from the Friends of Kauai Wildlife Refuges

UPDATE:  The final total for the 2024/25 breeding season was 44 fertile Laysan Albatross eggs given.to birds elsewhere on Kauai that had infertile eggs for a translocation programme that commenced in 2005, according to Brooke Mcfarland, Natural Resources Manager, Pacific Missile Range Facility.

As of 12 December, 27 fertile Laysan Albatross or Mōlī Phoebastria immutabilis eggs from occupied nests in the Pacific Missile Range Facility had been successfully swapped with infertile eggs (often laid by female-female pairs) on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.  "The Pacific Missile Range Facility on the west side of Kauai [is] where nesting is dangerous for aircraft and albatross.  Eggs there are confiscated, put into an incubator, candled for fertility and adopted out.  Placed on both federal and private lands, the project means more than two dozen additional chicks may fledge from the island in the current breeding season”. Information from the Facbook page of Hob Osterlund.  Watch a video of candling an egg in the field to test for viability here.

Egg swaps have been a regular activity on Kauai for some years (click here).

A Laysan Albatross pair inspects their egg within the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge in the current 2024/25 breeding season, photograph from the Kilauea Point Wildlife Reserve

Within the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on Kauai, the Facebook page of the Friends of the Kaua'i National Wildlife Refuges reports that 151 Laysan Albatross occupied nests have been counted  within two breeding colonies.  These birds now breed behind predator-proof fencing.  In the previous (2023/24) breeding season the 158 eggs counted constituted  a record number (click here). A more recent total is given as 153,  An article by Hob Osterlund adds "We have an estimated 388 nests [for Kauai], a first-place photo finish with [2017/18], when there were 392 nests. Of those, thirty-nine percent (153 nests)  are on US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) federal land at Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge. Sixty-one percent (235 nests) are on private lands. Private land colony sizes vary from as few as one nest to as many as 63 nests". 

With thanks to Brooke Mcfarland and Hob Osterlund.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 08 January 2025, updated 09 January 2025

The 2024/25 count is underway behind this incubating Laysan Albatross

In an article entitled “Experiences of a Volunteer Bird Counter” Dan Rapp has written and posted his videos on the website of the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge of the 2024/2025 count.

 Dan’s edited text follows:

“0n 9 December, bird counters arrived at Kuaihelani.Pihemanu.Midway Atoll as they do every year. They arrived after dark which greatly minimizes albatross disturbance and especially the likelihood their small plane does not strike any of the hundreds of thousands of seabirds in the height of the nesting season on the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.  This year their manual count will be compared and tested against the ability of a drone to document accurately the number of albatross nests throughout three islands within the Atoll.  A bird counter's time and energy working 48 hours a week for a month in December through mid-January contributes to one of the longest and most consistent monitoring seabird data sets in the world.  Precision and focus are critical, and one must have the physical stamina, agility and ability to walk on uneven ground without harming or disturbing nesting albatross or collapsing Nunulu or Bonin Petrel Pterodroma hypoleuca nests under a shifting sandy surface.

 
"The Bird Counters are headed to a sector on Eastern Island at daybreak on their daily sojourn to count albatross nests"

“Each burrow-shaped entrance or tunnel, that appears to run along the surface of the sand, is excavated by a nesting Bonin Petrel pair which makes its nest by digging a deep burrow that runs parallel to the surface before the burrow runs deeper to create a safe nest cavity.  The weight of one human foot can easily collapse one of these burrows unless so-called burrow shoes distribute a person's weight evenly.   The counter must also be constantly aware of where to carefully step next.  Often stepping next to the lower side of a burrow entrance is usually the safest bet for both birds and counters.

"Near the fringing reef at Midway Atoll where Ka’upu (Black-footed Albatross) nest along side the Laysan Albatross"

“By general observation it appears there are more Mōlī (Laysan Albatross) this year than the past couple of years.  Time will tell when the cumulative daily numbers are tallied after counters finish walking in a methodical pattern step-by-step, click-by-click in their clumsy homemade shoes on each square foot of three islands within the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.”

Burrow shoes, also known as”clown shoes”, are  worn during the Annual Bird Count

In response to a query posted to the Facebook page of the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on using drone photography instead of counting by foot, a reply by an experienced Midway counter states “It has been tried.  Winter winds, bushes and trees, resting but not nesting birds, etc, all make for drone challenges.”  Collisions with flying albatrosses could also be an issue when flying drones in daylight hours, which could lead to mortalities, as has occurred in the past with daytime airplane flights in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (click here).  Night-time landings are clearly safer for both the birds and the plane’s occupants!

A satellite view of Sand (left) and Eastern Islands in the Midway Atoll

The annual counts commenced in 1992, so the current count is the 34th.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 07 January 2025