A juvenile mollymawk albatross Thalassarche sp. in an emaciated state was taken into care by Wildbase, a wildlife health service attached to the School of Veterinary Science at Massey University in New Zealand’s Palmerston North on 15 April this year.

The young bird (considered most likely a Globally and Nationally Vulnerable Campbell Albatross T. impavida from photographs seen by Colin Miskelly, Curator Vertebrates, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) was found some 60 km inland from the nearest sea in Greytown on New Zealand’s North Island.  Over 12/13 April strong southerly winds of up to 47 km/h in the region may have contributed to the bird being blown inland.  On arrival at Wildbase it weighed only 1300 g, in comparison with healthy adult Campbell Albatrosses that weigh around three kilograms.  Despite treatment (oral and intravenous rehydration, feeding by tube and being placed in an incubator) the albatross died overnight on the 16/17th.

The juvenile albatross in captivity at Wildbase

Ventral X-ray of the albatross with a plastic straw in the oesophagus (vertical position at top)

Lateral X-ray of the albatross

The plastic straw removed on post mortem

Wildbase reports on its Facebook page:

“It unfortunately died despite our efforts.  It was emaciated and in a very poor state … The [plastic] straw (photographed) was a find on post mortem - which you may be able to make out in the oesophagus of the lateral X-ray”.

Wildbase has also written to ACAP Latest News: “We see emaciated young albatross around this time each year and we now are actively looking for ingested plastics as they are hard to identify on X-ray. We have been using the gastroscope to check the stomach of these birds and often remove bits of plastic.”

Ingestion of plastic items by many albatross species has been regularly recorded, most notably by the Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis of the North Pacific.  Plastic fed to chicks by their parents may be regurgitated in a bolus (along with squid beaks and other indigestible items) prior to fledging.  The albatross, probably having only recently left Campbell Island (the sole breeding site for Campbell Albatrosses where fledging occurs from mid-April to early May), may have been fed the straw by a parent prior to it fledging, or it may have picked it up from the sea surface and swallowed it itself.

Plastic straws appear to be rarely recorded as having been swallowed by southern hemisphere albatrosses.  A previous record covered by ACAP Latest News is of a Grey-headed Albatross T. chrysostoma washed up dead on an Australian shore which contained a straw as well as fragments of latex balloons (click here).

Globally, campaigns have started against the use of single-use plastic straws, many of which end up at sea once discarded (click here).  If successful, perhaps not too many more albatrosses will die from them.

Albatrosses do occasionally end up surprising distances inland.  An Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos ended up 500 km inland in Canada (click here).

With thanks to Pauline Nijman, Wildbase Technician Supervisor and Colim Miskelly, for information and photographs.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 May 2019

UPDATE

Registration has opened today (01 January 2020)

During the 11th Meeting of ACAP's Advisory Committee meeting in Brazil this week, delegates and observers were informed of upcoming conferences of relevance to seabird biology and conservation.  The Australian Delegation reported on the intention to host a two-day conference on sub-Antarctic islands, homes to many ACAP-listed species, next year.  Details follow.

 The Tasmanian Government of Australia will join with the New Zealand Department of Conservation to host the Fourth International Forum on the sub-Antarctic in Hobart, Tasmania over 29-30 July 2020.

“The Forum will be multidisciplinary, interactive and inclusive, encouraging discussion of the common challenges and pressures that face the sub-Antarctic.  It will bring together all those passionate about the sub-Antarctic - scientists, tourism operators, fishers, land managers, heritage experts and policy makers - to share knowledge and experience, explore connections and develop partnerships for a collective future.”

Within the overarching themes of policy, management and science, the Forum will include sessions on climate, conservation, biosecurity, geoscience, tourism, fishing, heritage connectivity, and management challenges.

Immediately after the Sub-Antarctic Forum, Hobart will host the 2020 Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Open Science Conference and the SCAR Delegates Meeting.  Click here for SCAR’s first pre-conference circular.

For more information on the Sub-Antarctic Forum contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 May 2019, updated 17 October 2019 & 01 January 2020

The Eleventh Meeting (AC11) of the Agreement’s Advisory Committee is being held on the island of Santa Caterina in Brazil this week.  As well as nine of the 13 Parties to the Agreement represented at the meeting, attendees have come from three “range-state nations” which are not Parties but which have breeding populations of, or are visited by, ACAP-listed species.  These are Canada, Namibia and the USA, all of which have been represented at ACAP meetings for some years.  At the meeting both Namibia and the USA gave updates on their progress towards becoming ACAP Parties; the USA reporting on a hearing this year in its House of Representatives (click here).

A new observer is Chinese Taipei, a member economy of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC).  Chinese Taipei has a high-seas fishing fleet which can venture into the at-sea ranges of ACAP-listed species.

Observers from Chinese Taipei with ACAP's Information Officer.  From left: Julia Hsian-Wen Huang, John Cooper, Ling-Ling Chen, Yi-Chun Fan &  David Lai

Chinese Taipei takes up its observer seats at the opening of ACAP's Advisory Committee

Another new observer is The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, represented by Ebone Blyden of the Ministry of Environment and Housing.  The Bahamas is a range state for a number of species of shearwaters, petrels and storm petrels (click here).

NGO observers at the meeting include Humane Society International and Brazil’s Projeto Albatroz.  Unlike at previous Advisory Committee meetings, BirdLife International is not attending AC11, although it did attend last week’s working group meetings.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 May 2019

Yesterday saw the start of the Eleventh Meeting (AC11) of the Agreement’s Advisory Committee in Brazil.  The meeting is being held over four days this week in the Jurerê Il Campanario Hotel in the Jurerê Internacional beach resort at the northern end of Santa Catarina Island in the municipality of Florianópolis.

The meeting was formally opened by Marília Guimarães Marini, Head of the Department of Conservation and Species Management, Ministry of the Environment of Brazil (Diretora do Departamento de Conservação e Manejo de Espécies do Ministério do Meio Ambiente do Brasil).

Tatiana Neves, Advisory Committee Vice-chair; Nathan Walker, Advisory Committee Chair and Christine Bogle, ACAP Executive Secretary,

listen to Marília Guimarães Marini give her opening address

Ms Marini’s address to AC11 follows:

“Ladies and gentleman,

I would like to welcome all of you and thank you for your presence. It is a great honour for Brazil to host for the second time the Advisory Committee Meeting of the ACAP to discuss a subject that is very dear to us - the conservation of albatrosses and petrels.

Brazil has a history of active participation in several agreements for the conservation of biodiversity, the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels among them. Brazilian participation in ACAP started since before it came into effect, since the first preparatory meeting, in 2000.

Brazil's participation in ACAP is of fundamental importance for national fisheries management and the conservation of species of albatrosses threatened with extinction. Of the 22 species of albatrosses that are covered by the Agreement 10 feed in Brazilian waters, of which 5 are in the national red list.

The participation of Brazil in the ACAP helped us to build up legal regulations and scientific research on issues relevant to the conservation of marine biodiversity. The Brazilian Institute of Biodiversity Conservation - ICMBio - has been implementing the National Plan of Action for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (Plano Nacional para a Conservação de Albatrozes e Petréis, PLANACAP, click here) the objective of coordinating actions for mitigation and reduction of the main threats for the conservation of these species.  This Plan is the main national management tool to implement ACAP guidelines and both of them are interdependent in order to ensure higher quality work and effectiveness of the actions.  ACAP is considered by articulators and collaborators of PLANACAP as an important instrument for the ongoing effort to qualify, finance and bring together all Brazilian and international governmental and non-governmental initiatives related to the conservation of these long-lived and unique ocean birds. At this point, I would to congratulate Patricia Serafini for her excellent work, especially in coordination of the PLANACAP, and Tatiana Neves, for her lifetime dedication to the conservation of albatrosses.  Both of them have an active and passionate role in ACAP.

There is no chance for us to succeed in the conservation of albatrosses and petrels without international coordination of activities.  The efforts we make in the feeding areas in Brazil will have a profound effect on the conservation efforts that the partner countries will have in the breeding areas. This coordination of activities is crucial if we are to reverse the drastic decline in some migratory populations of albatrosses and petrels, which unfortunately are one of the most endangered groups of seabirds in the world. Threats such as bycatch of these birds on longline fisheries, invasive alien species, diseases in the colonies where these birds breed in addition to other emerging issues such as ocean pollution, marine debris, especially the ingestion of plastic by seabirds, have also been addressed here under the Agreement, and the results of this work will benefit the conservation efforts of all countries present here today.

Finally, I wish you a pleasant stay and a productive week, and also thank you on behalf of the Ministry of the Environment for the wonderful work that you [are] developing at ACAP.

Thank you.”

Brazilian delegates Igor Brito Silva, Thaís Coutinho & Patricia Pereira Serafini with Tatiana Neves, AC Vice-chair; Marília Guimarães Marini; Christine Bogle, ACAP Executive Secretary & Nathan Walker, AC Chair

Delegates marked Ms Marini's address with a round of applause after which AC Chair Nathan Walker and Vice-chair Tatian Neves offered their own thanks.

Following a productive first day’s discussions, the meeting adjourned mid-afternoon to allow delegates to read working group reports preperatory to their presentation and discussion by the Advisory Committee.   A ‘folkloric’ event after some welcome cooling rain in the evening rounded off the day.

Scary?  A bull gives ACAP's Information Officer the eye at the evening's entertainment

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 May 2019