White-capped Albatrosses underwater, artwork by Inge Eisenhauer

Yvan Richard (Dragonfly Data Science, Wellington, New Zealand) and colleagues have reported to the Conservation Service Programme of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation on records of seabirds around commercial fishing vessels within New Zealand waters with over 220 000 counted over an 11-year period.  The nationally Declining and globally Near Threatened White-capped Albatross Thalassarche steadi was the most commonly recorded ACAP-listed species.

The report's executive summary follows:

"There are over 80 species of seabird breeding in New Zealand waters, but for many species their at-sea distribution remains largely unknown. This report presents a summary of seabird data in the New Zealand region, based on seabird counts made by fisheries observers on-board commercial fishing vessels, recorded on paper forms between January 2008, and November 2018 and on electronic Nomad devices between January 2009 and September 2019.  Counts recorded on paper forms followed different protocols and were treated separately.

During the 11-year period, there were 45,325 observations of seabirds around fishing vessels in New Zealand waters recorded on paper forms, from 1,493 fishing trips and 36,781 fishing events, resulting in 221,746 seabird counts. Records from electronic Nomad devices consisted of 43,609 observations, and 114,744 counts, during 5,075 fishing trips.

Seabird counts were made of subspecies, species, or species groups, depending on the level of identification. The recorded seabirds encompassed a wide range of species and species groups, from coastal taxa such as penguins, shags, gulls and terns to oceanic taxa such as albatrosses, petrels, and shearwaters. The most frequently recorded taxa among observations made on paper forms were Cape petrel Daption capense, present in over 28,000 observations, followed by New Zealand white-capped albatross Thalassarche cauta steadi and the species group giant petrels (Macronectes spp.), which were present in over 26,000 and 19,000 observations, respectively.

Seabird abundance around fishing vessels varied in relation to fishing method, with seabirds observed at considerably higher abundances around trawl vessels than in any other fishing method among the counts on paper forms, whereas a larger number of seabirds was recorded in set-net fisheries among observations on Nomad devices.

This report is an update of an earlier version, to include seven additional years of data up to November 2018 for records on paper forms. Data were filtered here to only consider the counts made of birds within 100 m of fishing vessels to improve the comparability of counts. Also, an additional dataset was created, from sightings recorded by observers on Nomad electronic devices. However, this dataset is not comparable to sightings recorded on paper forms, as records were scattered throughout the day and not focused on the first tow of the day.”

Reference:

Richard, Y., Abraham, E. & Berkenbusch, K. 2020.  Counts of seabirds around commercial fishing vessels within New Zealand waters, 2007–08 to 2018–19. Report prepared for the Department of Conservation.  Wellington: Dragonfly Data Science.  43 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 October 2020

Antipodean Albatross by Kitty Harvill, from a photograph by Kirk Zufelt

New Zealand adopted a new National Plan of Action - Seabirds in May this year following an extensive consultation process that received over 3700 submissions (click here).

The plan’s Executive Summary follows:

“New Zealand is a centre of seabird biodiversity: of an estimated 346 seabird species, there are approximately 145 species that use New Zealand waters, and 95 species that breed in New Zealand. Many of these species’ activities overlap with fishing, which can lead to the bycatch of seabirds. The National Plan of Action – Seabirds 2020 Reducing the incidental mortality of seabirds in fisheries (NPOA Seabirds 2020), outlines the New Zealand Government’s ongoing commitment to reducing bycatch of seabirds in our fisheries.

The NPOA Seabirds 2020, like its predecessors, stems from a recommendation made in the UN (United Nations) Food and Agriculture Organisation’s International plan of action for reducing incidental catch of seabirds in longline fisheries (IPOA-Seabirds) in 1999.

The NPOA Seabirds 2020 is New Zealand’s third iteration of a national plan of action. New Zealand has embarked on a programme of transformational change in our fisheries management to ensure that our fisheries are world-leading in their sustainability and environmental performance. At the end of this period, we expect to have significantly increased monitoring and more responsible, low-impact fishing practices.

In recognition of this path to change, this NPOA Seabirds 2020 focuses on education, partnering to find innovative solutions to bycatch mitigation, and ensuring that all fishers know how and are taking all practicable steps to avoiding seabird bycatch.

In five years, monitoring capabilities will have expanded and we will have better information on seabird populations and how to avoid captures. This will allow for more direct management, including consideration of mortality limits or approaches as appropriate. We also expect that we will have a better understanding of seabird populations and behaviours, which will help us to identify other ways that we can ensure the long-term viability of our seabird species.

This NPOA Seabirds 2020 establishes the framework that the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Fisheries New Zealand will use to work together on seabird initiatives.

The NPOA Seabirds 2020’s vision is New Zealanders work towards zero fishing-related seabird mortalities.

Guided by this vision, the NPOA Seabirds 2020 has four goals:

1. Avoiding bycatch — effective bycatch mitigation practices are implemented in New Zealand fisheries

2. Healthy seabird populations — direct effects of New Zealand fishing do not threaten seabird populations or their recovery

3. Research and information — information to effectively manage direct fisheries effects on seabirds is continuously improved

4. International engagement — New Zealand actively engages internationally to promote measures and practices that reduce impacts on New Zealand seabirds

Each goal has objectives to be achieved within the next five years. We will report on our progress towards these objectives in a Seabird Annual Report, and will use the information it contains to set the following year’s priorities in a Seabird Implementation Plan. After five years, we will review the achievements and challenges of the NPOA Seabirds 2020.

The Seabird Advisory Group (comprising representatives from government agencies, key stakeholder groups and tangata whenua) will meet periodically to monitor and help implement the NPOA Seabirds 2020, and to consider new or arising matters related to the impacts on seabirds from fisheries.”

Read more about the plan and the consultation process here.  See also "Time running out for endangered albatross".

Reference:

[Fisheries New Zealand] 2020.  National Plan of Action - Seabirds 2020. Reducing the Incidental Mortality of Seabirds in Fisheries.  Wellington: Fisheries New Zealand.  21 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 October 2020

Breeding female Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross with a satellite tracker on Adams Island, Auckland Islands; from the report

Kalinka Rexer-Huber (Parker Conservation, Dunedin, New Zealand) and colleagues have reported to the Conservation Service Programme of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation on research conducted on the Gibson’s subspecies of the Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni and on White-capped Albatross Thalassarche steadi on the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands.

The report’s summary follows:

“This report details the mark-recapture methods and findings for Gibson’s albatross and white-capped albatross at the Auckland Islands. We present data on the size of the Gibson’s albatross nesting population on Adams Island in 2020 and update estimates of survival, productivity, recruitment and foraging range to help identify causes of current population size and trends. For white-capped albatrosses we focus on estimating adult survival and document tracking methods and device recoveries.

Gibson’s albatross. Nesting success was 56%. The survival rate of adult females and males is once again similar, having recuperated from the dramatically low female survival recorded 2006–08. However, at 90% the survival rate for both sexes remains 6% lower than before the population crash in 2005, and is probably incompatible with population recovery given ongoing limited chick production. The total estimated number of breeding pairs of Gibson’s wandering albatrosses showed slow improvement 2008–13, but these gains appear to have stalled. In 2019–20 the island-wide breeding population (3,861 pairs) was the lowest recorded since the years following the crash (2008–10). In the study area 96 albatross pairs bred in 2019–20. This is the first time nest numbers there have fallen below 100 since the crash 2006–08. There were only seventeen new recruits into the study colony (new breeding birds banded). Breeding and non-breeding/failed females have different survival rates. Satellite tracking in 2019 showed breeding birds foraging largely in the Tasman Sea, while those that had failed moved further west into the Great Australian Bight. Together, survival, breeding numbers and recruitment show the slow Gibson’s albatross population recovery recorded over the decade 2007–16 has stalled.

White-capped albatross. Banded white-capped albatrosses were resighted at a rate of 0.26 in the study colony of 679 banded birds. Four GLS tracking devices were retrieved, and one further bird which had lost its GLS (or had it removed) was resighted. Adult survival is estimated as 90% (95% CI 86–93), taking into account different detection rates of nesting birds and those not on nest during colony visits.”

Foraging ranges of six breeding female Gibson’s Antipodean Albatrosses from Adams Island, February – September 2019; from the report

Reference:

Rexer-Huber K., Elliott G., Walker K., Thompson D. & Parker G.C. 2020.  Gibson’s albatross and white-capped albatross in the Auckland Islands 2019-20.  Final report to Department of Conservation, Conservation Services Programme 10 June 2020.  Dunedin: Parker Conservation.  30 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 October 2020

Smiles behind the masks?  From left: Michelle Risi, Ria Olivier, ACAP's Information Officer and Chris Jones

Most comments received by ACAP suggest that this year’s inaugural World Albatross Day went off well, with the conservation crisis facing albatrosses being brought to the attention of new audiences around the world.  With 19 June now long past it is perhaps surprising there is still a need to thank some of the supporters of ‘WAD2020’: we can blame COVID-19 pandemic for that!  ACAP’s Information Officer has been largely self-isolating in his Cape Town home during 2021, but with South Africa easing restrictions by moving to Level One last month he has been able cautiously to get out to thank colleagues for their WAD2020 contributions – at a social distance in the open air of course.

This week he met up with Michelle Risi, who had returned a few days previously from two years working for the Gough Island Restoration Programme (GIRP) on the island (click here) to offer his personal and ACAP’s thanks for her support of WAD2020 and to hand over some albatross posters and postcards.  Indeed, the original impetus for a World Albatross Day came from Michelle’s suggestion, and following her co-option to ACAP’s WAD Intersessional Group she persuaded her contacts to help by designing pro bono a WAD2020 logo by commercial artist Geoffry Tyler and a poster by award-winning illustrator Owen Davey.  Along with Melanie Wells from Australia, she led on setting up the popular World Albatross Day Great Albicake Bake Off – and baking a couple of cakes for the competition herself.  Michelle is an excellent photographer, and some of her best work has been made into WAD2020 posters as well inspiring artworks by the Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) group.

Michelle Risi meets a globally Endangered Sooty Albatross on mountainous Gough Island

Michelle and husband Chris Jones hope to return to Gough next year to help with the GIRP mouse eradication exercise, called off this year as a consequence of the pandemic causing a disruption of international travel.

With grateful thanks to Ria Olivier of the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa project which sponsored the printing of WAD2020 posters and postcards as well as donating island books published by ALSA as competition prizes.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 October 2020