South Africa, a Party to the Albatross and Petrel Agreement (ACAP), has instituted a process to revise and update its National Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Fisheries (NPOA-Seabirds).  The current plan, adopted in 2008, came after a several-year process with a first draft being submitted to the government authority in November 2002, with a second draft following review submitted in December 2003.  The final draft followed on from a Stakeholders Workshop held in South Africa in January 2003.  These two draft texts were produced at the University of Cape Town by academic ornithologists John Cooper and Peter Ryan, following the guidelines for NPOA-Seabirds set out by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in its IPOA-Seabirds document published in 1999.  In line with the IPOA-Seabirds the draft was made up of two parts.  Firstly, came a detailed assessment of the level of seabird bycatch in different South African longline fisheries (which the text describes) along with a summary of relevant South African legislation and a description of the affected seabird species.  The second part was the national plan itself, which described recommended mitigation measures, as well as considering research and development, education, training and publicity, and data collection. The texts, whose production was funded by the FAO’s Committee on Fisheries (COFI), were submitted to the then Branch: Marine and Coastal Management of the South African Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, recently reconstituted as the Department of the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF).

The officially adopted 2008 text, given the new knowledge that had come to light on seabird mortality from colliding with warps and cables, was expanded to include trawl fisheries and did not include the assessment in the drafts described above.

South Africa's 2008 NPOA-Seabirds - now under revision

DEFF's Oceans and Coasts Branch is now leading on the latest revision, with the intention of having a new NPOA-Seabirds, adopted in time to submit it to the Seventh Meeting of the Parties to ACAP, expected to be held in Hobart, Australia in 2021.  To this end a revision working group held its first meeting last week, with a small group of experts from DEFF, BirdLife South Africa’s Seabird Conservation Programme (Andrea Angel) and the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town (Peter Ryan), as well as ACAP’s Information Officer.  The Meeting was co-chaired by Azwianewi Makhado (South Africa's ACAP National Contact Point) and Herman Oosthuizen, both from DEFF.  At the meeting it was decided to co-opt Anton Wolfaardt, a Co-convenor of ACAP’s Seabird Bycatch Working Group (SBWG) and who is based in South Africa. Another member of the SBWG, Johan de Goede of DEFF, is also a member of the revision group.

During the meeting a way forward was decided on improving and expanding an existing revision, which had been produced under contract earlier.  Individual group members were given sections to work on, with the intention of convening a second group meeting once a new text can be collated.  As well as considering longline and trawl fisheries, the new South African NPOA-Seabirds will also take account of any seabird bycatch that might occur in other South African marine fisheries, including tuna pole and line, purse-seining, and fixed/gill nets.

References:

Cooper, J. & Ryan, P.G 2002.  South African National Plan of Action for Reducing the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries.  [Rondebosch: University of Cape Town].  95 pp.

Cooper, J. & Ryan, P.G 2003.  South African National Plan of Action for Reducing the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries.  [Rondebosch: University of Cape Town].  103 pp.

FAO 1999.  International Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries.  International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks.  International Plan of Action for the Management of Fishing Capacity.  Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.  26 pp.

South Africa [Cooper, J., Petersen, S. & Ryan, P.G.] 2008.  South African National Plan of Action for Reducing the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries.  [Cape Town]: Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism.  32 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 June 2019

UPDATE:  The tracked birds have been travelling in a north-easterly direction and are starting to pass the southern tip of Africa - and Cape Town where ACAP's Information Officer lives.  One bird has flown over 10 700 km as of 10 June.  Access the regularly updated tracking map here.

A Grey-headed Albatross chick from the 2018 Bird Island cohort.  The satellite tracker's aerial can be seen. Photograph by Derren Fox

ACAP meetings in Brazil this and last week heard of research conducted on 16 globally Endangered Grey-headed Albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma chicks close to fledging fitted with PTTs (“Platform Transmitter Terminals” or satellite trackers) at Bird Island, South Georgia/Islas Georgias del Sur* in the South Atlantic during May last year.  The Bird Island population is an ACAP Priority Population for study as it is currently considered to be declining in size with annual survival rates of juveniles lower than expected.  One bird flew across the southern Indian Ocean past New Zealand into the Pacific Ocean, travelling a total of 49 604 km when last recorded on 12 December 2018 (see also abstract at PaCSWG5 Inf 19).

 “There are records from observers on board fishing vessels that immature birds are killed in pelagic longline fisheries in some areas that are not used regularly by nonbreeding adults. In addition, circumstantial evidence suggests that because of the population decline there may have been a density-dependent increase in predation by giant petrels [Macronectes sp.] of juvenile grey-headed albatrosses both as they fledge and in the few days immediately thereafter when they often rest on the sea close to the island.

For these reasons, there is an urgent need to:

• map the movements and foraging areas of juveniles in order to determine the overlap with fisheries,
• assess the survival rate of juveniles in the initial weeks and months after they fledge.”

The work is therefore continuing with another 16 Grey-headed Albatross chicks fitted with trackers over 11/12 May this year; five of these have now fledged.  The juveniles are being tracked in near real-time with a duty cycle of eight hours on and 43 hours off.  As of today the longest distance travelled by one of these five is 1572 km, in a north-easterly direction.    Read more and access the regularly updated tracking map here.

With thanks to Richard Phillips and Andy Wood for information and Derren Fox for the photograph.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 May 2019, updated 10 June 2019

*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.

“George” and “Geraldine”, a pair of globally Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus, that have been attempting to breed on Sand Island in the USA’s Midway Atoll are thought to have fledged their first chick this year – and the first for the island (click here).  The albatross pair arrived on the island in late October 2018 within one day of each other, subsequently laying and incubating an egg which hatched on 3 January.

“George” (right) and “Geraldine” together on Midway in 2018, photograph by USFWS volunteer, Madalyn Riley

George stands by his 2019 chick, photograph by Bob Peyton

George, the male of the pair, a bird in adult plumage, has been visiting Midway Atoll since November 2006 (when known as “Lonesome George”).  He hatched from the colony on Japan’s Torishima in 2003 and was banded there as a chick.  Geraldine, an assumed younger bird, is still in sub-adult plumage and is suspected to be an individual that was banded on Torishima in April 2008.  She was first observed on Sand Island in early 2012.  The two birds were first seen together on the island in late 2016.  Last season (2017/18) the pair incubated a Black-footed Albatross P. nigripes egg, which hatched and resulted in a fledged chick.  Now they have fledged their own chick.

USFWS biologists Keely Hassett (left) and Kelly Goodale band the downy Short-tailed Albatross chick with Red AA08 on 6 May 2019

Banding photographs by Jon Pilssner from the Friends of Midway Atoll NWR

Previously, a different pair of Short-tailed Albatrosses bred successfully three times in four years on the atoll’s Eastern Island, fledging several chicks, the last one in 2014.

Read more postings on Midway’s Short-tailed Albatrosses on both Eastern and Sand Islands here and here.

With thanks to Madalyn Riley.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 June 2019

Jennifer Provencher (Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Gatineau, Canada) and colleagues have published in the open-access journal FACETS on recommended best practices for plastic and litter ingestion studies in marine birds, including procellariiform albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Marine plastic pollution is an environmental contaminant of significant concern. There is a lack of consistency in sample collection and processing that continues to impede meta-analyses and large-scale comparisons across time and space. This is true for most taxa, including seabirds, which are the most studied megafauna group with regards to plastic ingestion research. Consequently, it is difficult to evaluate the impacts and extent of plastic contamination in seabirds fully and accurately, and to make inferences about species for which we have little or no data. We provide a synthesized set of recommendations specific for seabirds and plastic ingestion studies that include best practices in relation to sample collection, processing, and reporting, as well as highlighting some “cross-cutting” methods. We include guidance for how carcasses, regurgitations, and pellets should be handled and treated to prevent cross-contamination, and a discussion of what size class of microplastics can be assessed in each sample type. Although we focus on marine bird samples, we also include standardized techniques to remove sediment and biological material that are generalizable to other taxa. Lastly, metrics and data presentation of ingested plastics are briefly reviewed in the context of seabird studies.”

Removing plastics from a corpse of a globally Near Threatened Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna  carneipes, photograph by Ian Hutton

Reference:

Provencher, J.F., Borrelle, S.B., Bond, A.L., Lavers, J.L., van Franeker, J.A., Kühn, S., Hammer, S., Avery-Gomm, S. & Mallory, M.L. 2019.  Recommended best practices for plastic and litter ingestion studies in marine birds: Collection, processing, and reporting.  FACETS 4: 111-130.  doi.org/10.1139/facets-2018-0043.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 June 2019