The Lord Howe Island Rodent Eradication Project aims to eradicate introduced Ship Rats Rattus rattus and House Mice Mus musculus from Australia’s inhabited and World Heritage Lord Howe Island, inter alia to help protect its breeding populations of petrels and shearwaters (click here).

Following a number of years of planning and discussions and consultations with the island community, the eradication got underway this austral winter combining the use of poison bait boxes and hand broadcasting of bait in inhabited, cultivated and pastoral areas and aerial baiting by helicopter over the mountainous parts that support natural vegetation (click here).

Different rodent baiting zones on Lord Howe Island

Keith Springer, Technical Advisor for the project has written to ACAP Latest News: “we completed the first bait drop last week, starting on Saturday [8 June] and finishing on Wednesday [12 June] morning.  Tuesday was too windy.  Now we await another window of reasonable weather to get the second application out.”  Hand broadcasting of baiting had commenced around the same time with the filling of some 28 000 bait boxes taking place earlier from 22 May.  Following the first round, project sweep teams have been checking recreational areas, the school, playground, family areas and walking tracks and removing any bait pellets which may have been dropped by rodents overnight as well as any carcasses found.  The bait boxes will be checked and topped up, initially once a week, then at two-week intervals for a further two months. 

The second round of aerial baiting and ground broadcasting are due to take place 10-21 days after the first operation and may take place from this week.  So far results of the first round seem promising, according to news received from an island resident: “the forest has a smell of dead rats; and teams are searching tracks and settlement for signs of any off-target species deaths".   It appears very few have been found so far.  Two Australian Masked Owls Tyto novaehollandiae  have been affected by secondary poisoning; it is hoped that this introduced species can also be eradicated on the island.

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A pair of Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes (globally Near Threatened and a proposed candidate for ACAP listing) on Lord Howe Island

Photograph by Ian Hutton

 Read a popular article on the eradication here

ACAP’s Information Officer has had a long-time yen to visit Lord Howe.  If he does he hopes to see the island and its petrels and shearwaters free from introduced rats and mice.

With thanks to Ian Hutton and Keith Springer.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 June 2019

Edin Whitehead (School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand) and colleagues have published a report that comprehensively reviews and summarizes threats facing seabirds of northern New Zealand, including the Hauraki Gulf region and its many islands.  Among the 15 procellariform species included in the report are the ACAP-listed Near Threatened Buller’s Albatross Thalassarche bulleri (of the northern subspecies platei) and globally Vulnerable Black Petrel Pterodroma parkinsoni.  The Near Threatened Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes, identified as a candidate species for listing within the Agreement (click here), is also considered.  The authors write:

“This report aims to assess current and emerging threats to seabirds in Northern New Zealand, particularly the wider Hauraki Gulf region, and to identify knowledge gaps. In doing so, both research and conservation action can be prioritized to best mitigate threats to seabirds in the region. Consequently, the report aims to answer three basic questions:

What are current threats to seabirds in Northern New Zealand?

What are the knowledge gaps regarding seabird species in Northern New Zealand?

What are the knowledge gaps regarding threats to seabirds in Northern New Zealand?”

Both land-based and at-sea threats are covered, importantly including fishery interactions and introduced terrestrial predators, as well as pollution, disease, human disturbance and climate change.  Knowledge gaps in species’ biology and in the threats they face are also treated in the 76-page, illustrated report.

The illustration on the report's front cover shows a Black Petrel caught on a hookless line during experiments on petrel and shearwater behaviour around fishing vessels

Photograph by Richard Robinson

Reference:

Whitehead, E.A., Adams, N.[J.], Baird, K.A., Bell, E.A., Borrelle, S.B., Dunphy, B.J., Gaskin, C.P., Landers, T.J., Rayner, M.J. & Russell, J.C. 2019.  Threats to Seabirds of Northern Aotearoa New Zealand.  Auckland: Northern New Zealand Seabird Charitable Trust.  76 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 June 2019

UPDATE:

Dear Colleagues,
Earlier today, H.R. 1305, the Albatross and Petrel Conservation Act, cleared the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources. This legislation would implement the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) and its lead sponsor in the House is Representative Alan Lowenthal (D-CA). The bill was approved by the Committee on a party-line vote, 21-12. Although H.R. 1305 still needs to clear the full House and Senate, gaining approval by the House Committee on Natural Resources is the high-water mark to date in terms of action to advance ACAP. Stay tuned for opportunities to encourage action on ACAP in both the House and Senate.
~Stan Senner, Vice President, Bird Conservation, National Audubon Society.

Posted by the Pacific Seabird Group, 19 June 2019 on World Albatross Day

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On 26 March the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife of the House Natural Resources Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives held a legislative hearing on Bill H.R. 1305 “To implement the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, and for other purposes” with the short title “Albatross and Petrel Conservation Act.” The bipartisan bill was introduced by Representative Alan Lowenthal from California (click here and here).

Ed Melvin (Washington Sea Grant, University of Washington, Seattle, USA), and an expert member of the ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group since its inception in 2007, testified on the bill to the Subcommittee following his introduction (30:50 mark) by Rep. Pramila Jayapal from Washington State (click here to access his written statement and videoed spoken presentation and his response to questions by Rep. Ed Case from Hawaii at the 52:10 and 1:16: 40 marks, respectively).

Ed Melvin gives his testimony to the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife

  Mi Ae Kim, Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspection, US National Marine Fisheries Service (and regular attendee at ACAP meetings as part of the USA Delegation) takes notes far right

Photograph courtesy of the House Natural Resources Committee

In his written testimony Ed Melvin stated the following as to why the USA should implement the Agreement, encouraging the Subcommittee to support H.R. 1305 and to facilitate its passage in the House and the Senate:

“This bill would allow the US to formally join the international effort to maintain a favorable conservation status for albatrosses and petrels by joining the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.

As the 14th nation to join the Agreement, the US would have a formal vehicle to use its formidable leadership position to extend the science based conservation measures already in place in US fisheries to the fisheries of other nations and to international tuna commissions that have jurisdiction over any part of the range of albatrosses and petrels that breed or forage in the US. As noted earlier, the US already participates in the ACAP process, but joining the Agreement would give the US a seat at the table for decision-making, research, and policy development and would allow US representatives and experts to hold positions of leadership in ACAP working groups, the Advisory Committee and the MoP. Being a party to the Agreement would allow us to more efficiently share our skills and experience to the benefit of these species and to the functioning of the Agreement itself.

No government bordering the North Pacific Ocean is Party to the Agreement at this time preventing the critical mass necessary to protect albatrosses and petrels worldwide. The US would thus be the first North Pacific nation to join the Agreement and could lead by example to encourage other North Pacific range states and governments to join the Agreement and the essential international effort to protect these vulnerable species. Canada, Japan, Chinese Taipei, The Peoples Republic of China, Russia, and South Korea all have large longline fleets that operate in the waters overlapping the foraging range of North Pacific Albatrosses. In most of these countries seabird conservation measures are lacking and/or not enforced nor are fishing operations monitored at sufficient levels to quantify the extent of seabird bycatch. Once the North Pacific albatrosses leave US waters, they have little to no protection from fishery mortality. We already collaborate with Japan (and Canada) on the recovery and protection of Short-tailed albatross through the ESA Recovery Team. Personally, I have worked closely with the Japanese tuna industry and the Japanese fishery management agencies on developing best practices to avoid seabird bycatch for their longline fisheries. I also have collaborated extensively with scientists in Chinese Taipei, Canada and Russia on seabird bycatch mitigation for their fisheries. My experiences and instincts tell me that these countries could follow the US into ACAP if the US were to lead. US status and leadership could also influence governments beyond the North Pacific to join the effort to protect these vulnerable species by joining the Agreement.

In addition, it is also likely that joining the Agreement would trigger further prioritization of seabird conservation work in our federal agencies. NOAA Fisheries could augment and institutionalize its capacity to lead mitigation research and fishermen training, and facilitate the participation of its scientists and managers in the ACAP process. The US, already a powerful voice in international fishing bodies (Regional Fishery Management Organizations), would be better positioned to advocate for worldwide adoption of fishery conservation measures based on the US experience and ACAP best practice advice. Further, joining the Agreement is likely to broaden the focus of conservation efforts in US fisheries from the endangered Short-tailed albatross to all North Pacific albatrosses and possibly the Pink-footed shearwater. As it is, protection for other seabirds, including Laysan and Black-footed albatrosses, is incidental to ESA based protections for Short-tailed Albatross. With regard to land threats, joining the Agreement is likely to elevate prioritization of the North Pacific albatrosses within the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This would result in provision of more consistent and reliable resources to monitor and assess albatross populations breeding on the Hawaiian Archipelago, better conservation plans to maintain habitat and eradicate predators on breeding colonies, and more reliable participation in the Agreement process.”

Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses on Kure Atoll, photograph from the Kure Atoll Conservancy

According to the NGO Pacific Seabird Group’s Facebook page “the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels legislation has long languished in Congress, but getting attention in this committee hearing is a step in the right direction”. Read an ALN posting on the USA’s  earlier efforts to become an ACAP Party.

Click here to read the full text of the bill “To implement the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, and for other purposes.”

With thanks to Mi Ae Kim, Ed Melvin and Erik Schneider for information and photograph.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 April 2019, updated 19 June 2019

At last month’s Advisory Committee meeting (AC11) in Brazil the ACAP Secretariat tabled an Information Paper (AC11 Inf 05) with the proposal to initiate a World Albatross Day.  The committee expressed considerable support for this initiative, as it aligned well with its desire of giving the Agreement greater visibility to address the conservation crisis facing albatrosses and petrels (click here).  It was thought that a World Albatross Day could initially be modest in scope, without requiring large resources, with the aim to commence the day in 2020.

An intersessional group was formed to explore this proposal further comprising Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, the UK, Humane Society International and Projeto Albatroz, to be led by Verónica López from Chile with ACAP’s Information Officer acting as the group’s Secretary.  The group held its first meeting during AC11 and discussed various ideas for the way forward.  It was agreed that the day should be marked annually on 19 June, the date in 2001 that the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels was signed in Canberra, Australia (click here).  In coming to this decision it was noted that this date does not appear to overlap with any other internationally recognized animal days. Among seabirds, there seems to be only a World Penguin Day in existence, marked on 25 April, so there appears to be scope for a day for the procellariiform seabirds, which are equally threatened as a group.

The intersessional group decided it should use the 12 months until 19 June 2020 to spread the word via social media and websites in selected countries (notably among the albatross breeding range states and high-seas fishing nations), as well as designing a logo, taking up a theme for the inaugural year and creating downloadable materials such as a poster and other educational materials in ACAP’s three official languages and in Portuguese.  The meeting also decided to co-opt Michelle Risi, a seabird researcher currently based on Gough Island monitoring Critically Endangered Tristan Albatrosses Diomedea dabbenena, who had made the original proposal for a World Albatross Day to ACAP.

Albatrosses of the world, artwork by Jamie Watts

With thanks to marine ecologist, expedition leader and naturalist guide Jamie Watts for the use of his artwork.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer & Verónica López, Oikonos, Chile, 19 June 2019