The Albatross and Petrel Agreement is holding its annual meetings in Brazil this year at Jurerê Internacional on the northern end of Santa Catarina Island in the municipality of Florianópolis.  Last week was spent with meetings of the Population and Conservation Working Group (PaCSWG5) and the Seabird Bycatch Working Group (SBWG9).  This week ACAP's Advisory Committee meets for the eleventh time (AC11), when, inter alia, it will hear and consider reports from the two working groups.

Over the intervening weekend delegates took time to read and comment on drafts of the two working group reports. Many also took the opportunity to explore their surroundings, including two sandy beaches excellent for bathers, walkers and runners alike (Praia de Jurerê and Praia do Forte) and an eighteenth century fortress,  Fortaleza São José da Ponta Grossa, that overlooks the sea on a forested headland between the two beaches.

The back wall of the Fortaleza São José da Ponta Grossa

Half way through a dawn run on Praia de Jurerê Johan de Goede (South Africa) pauses for the camera

On Sunday, the meetings' Brazilian host (and a Vice-convenor of the PaCSWG) Patricia Pereira Serafini of the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade led an outing to the Lagoa da Conceição, a large lake in the island's interior.  After a short drive some 20 of us took a water taxi and travelled north for 40 minutes or so along the lake's western boundary, past windsurfers out on the water to stop number 16 at a small village inacessible by road that is popular with tourists.  Here we first visited a small waterfall on the lake's forested slope and then took lunch in a lake-side restaurant on grilled fillets of Bluefish or Anchova (in Brazil) Pomatomus saltatrix (also known as Shad or Elf in South Africa) along with chips and rice.  The return journey on calm waters ended a most pleasant day, on which delegates could relax and regain their energies for the four days of discussion ahead.

Sunday outing participants gather on the steps of the meeting hotel Il Campanario

Fitting for some of us to travel in a Projeto Albatroz vehicle, decorated with a flying Black-browed Albatross

Not a big waterfall, but peaceful enough among the trees

Tucking into a generous lunch: this table did not manage to empty all its dishes ...

A post-prandial atmosphere in the water taxi on our return prevailed

Photographs by Jéssica Branco, Projeto Albatroz and John Cooper.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 May 2019

Today is World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD). World Migratory Bird Day is an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. It has a global outreach and is considered an effective tool to help raise global awareness of the threats faced by migratory birds, their ecological importance, and the need for international cooperation to conserve them.

This year the chosen theme is “Protect Birds: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution”.  ACAP is supporting this theme by making the following statement which was featured on the WMBD’s website on 10 March, along with statements from other key World Migratory Bird Day supporters and partners from around the world (click here).

“Albatrosses and their kin are pelagic seabirds which mainly breed on remote oceanic islands and forage over the open sea. They can travel enormous distances across oceans during foraging flights and migratory journeys, crossing international boundaries and venturing onto the High Seas.  They feed on live prey or by scavenging at or near the sea surface.  Unfortunately, all the species so far studied are prone to seizing and ingesting pieces of floating plastic.  A wide range of such items has been found in their stomachs, from plastic bags, toothbrushes, cigarette lighters, plastic straws, bottle tops and toy soldiers to fragments of latex balloons and Styrofoam, and even the sole of a shoe: the list seems endless.  Concern has also been expressed at the harmful effects of chemicals that may leach out of swallowed plastic.

Ingested plastic can be fed to chicks by regurgitation from their parents, accumulating in stomachs, leading to a false feeling of satiation that could cause fledging underweight with a lower chance of subsequent survival.  Larger plastic pieces ingested can cause injury to the alimentary canal.  Birds can starve to death if foraging or swallowing prey is overly hindered by ingested plastic.

Solving the problem of plastic ingestion by seabirds needs a broad-based approach, tackling marine litter at source and reducing single-use plastic.  ACAP will continue to support studies of plastic pollution in albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters and will continue to draw attention to the problem through its website and by Facebook postings.”

Whereas plastic ingestion can cause harm at the individual level as described in the above statement, its effects at the population level are harder to judge and require further studies.

Plastic items (including a cigarette lighter) withn the cavity of a decomposing Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis chick on Midway Atoll

Photograph by Chris Jordan

Christine Bogle, ACAP Executive Secretary & John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 May 2019

At this week's meeting of ACAP's Population and Conservation Study Group (PaCSWG5) in Floreanópolis, Brazil, South Africa reported yesterday on progress with plans to eradicate introduced House Mice Mus musculus in 2021 on its sub-Antarctic Marion Island. The mice have taken to attacking albatrosses and petrels in the last few years.  Summarized details of activities undertaken over the last 12 months or so follow, updating those given in Preston et al. 2019.

Island pest eradication expert Keith Springer from New Zealand accompanied last year’s annual relief voyage to Marion in April/May and subsequently produced draft project and operational plans for the eradication, building on John Parkes’ feasibility report published in 2016.  These two plans are not yet publicly available.

Bait uptake trials to demonstrate that all mice will eat bait, including trials to ensure mice in caves are reached by aerial baiting, were undertaken by Andrea Angel of BirdLife South Africa and Peter Ryan of the University of Cape Town’s FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology during the relief.  Husbandry trials to assess the feasibility of taking Lesser Sheathbills Chionis minor into captivity were also undertaken. Preliminary results suggest that it will be very challenging to keep a large number of sheathbills in captivity during the eradication attempt, according to the FitzPatrick Institute's Annual Report for 2018.

During the year studies assessing the start and end of mouse breeding across an altitudinal gradient, bait preference and toxicity trials, and monitoring cloud heights through the proposed winter baiting window were undertaken by environmental officers on the island.  Toxicity trials for mice on Marion Island were repeated and it was found that all mice died even at relatively low doses of brodifacoum.

Autumn surveys were conducted for the fourth successive year to monitor the spread of mouse attacks on large chicks of globally Endangered Grey-headed Thalassarche chrysostoma and sooty albatrosses Phoebetria spp. at Marion Island (click here).

A House Mouse attacks a downy Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans chick (globally Vulnerable) on Marion Island, photograph by Stefan Schoombie

BirdLife South Africa has instituted a dedicated website (“Mouse Free Marion”) to raise 30 million South African Rands to cover bait costs for the planned eradication via a “sponsor a hectare campaign” at US$90/ha or ZAR 1000/ha.  To date, 1 297 hectares have been “purchased” by 557 sponsors, representing 4.32% of the island’s total area.

 Following South Africa's presentation to PaCSWG5 yesterday, Nigel Brothers (Australia) sponsored a hectare for the Mouse Free Marion Campagin.

Here Nigel (left) is thanked by ACAP's Information Officer on behalf of BirdLife South Africa during the afternoon tea break

References:

FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology 2019.  FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology DST-NRF Centre of Excellence University of Cape Town Annual Report 2018.  Rondebosch: University of Cape Town.  74 pp.

Parkes, J. 2014.  Eradication of House Mice Mus musculus from Marion Island: a review of feasibility, constraints and risks.  In: Wanless, R.M. (Ed.).  BirdLife South Africa Occasional Report Series No. 1.  Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa.  27 pp.

Preston, G.R., B.J. Dilley, J. Cooper, J. Beaumont, L.F. Chauke, S. L. Chown, N. Devanunthan, M. Dopolo, L. Fikizolo, J. Heine, S. Henderson, C.A. Jacobs, F. Johnson, J. Kelly, A.B. Makhado, C. Marais, J. Maroga, M. Mayekiso, G. McClelland, J. Mphepya, D. Muir, N. Ngcaba, N. Ngcobo, J.P. Parkes, F. Paulsen, S. Schoombie, K. Springer, C. Stringer, H. Valentine, R.M. Wanless & P.G. Ryan 2019. South Africa works towards eradicating introduced house mice from sub-Antarctic Marion Island: the largest island yet attempted for mice.  pp. 40-46.  In: Veitch, C.R., Clout, M.N., Martin, A.R., Russell, J.C. & West, C.J. (Eds). Island Invasives: Scaling up to meet the Challenge.  Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. xiv + 734 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 May 2019

This and next week ACAP is holding its suite of annual meetings in Floreanópolis, Brazil.  Proceedings commenced with a Strategy Workshop to identify the most effective and efficient ways to engage with tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (tRFMOs) to deliver on ACAP conservation objectives on Sunday 5th (click here).

The workshop is being followed by a three-day meeting (the Ninth in the series) of ACAP's Seabird Bycatch Working Group (SBWG9).  Members and observers from 10 of ACAP's 13 Parties are in attendance, along with participants from range states Canada, Japan, Namibia and the USA, and from The Bahamas.  In addition, attendees have come from several NGOs: notably BirdLife International, Humane Society International and Brazil's Projeto Albatroz.  SBWG's four convenors will report on deliberations and findings of its Ninth Meeting to its parent body, the Advisory Committee, at its 11th Meeting from Monday next week.  Click here to access  the meeting's agenda and for the many documents (some password protected) being considered.

Here are some scenes from the first two days of SBWG9 in Floreanópolis:

Convenors and Vice Convenors Juan Pablo Seco Pon (Argentina), Igor Debski (New Zealand), Anton Wolfaardt (UK) and Sebastián Jiménez (Uruguay) get SBWG9 started

The southern African contingent at SBWG9: John Cooper (ACAP Information Officer), Johan de Goede (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, South Africa) and Desmond Bosco Tom (Seabirds & Offshore Islands, Namibia)

Daisuke Ochi, Sachiko Tsuji and Nobuhiro Katsumata, delegates from Japan, at lunch

Brazilian delegates from Projeto Albatroz in discussion

Some of us go running: Johan de Goede from South Africa photographs the dawn from the beach, Praia de Jurerê, Florianópolis

More sights and scenes from SBWG9 can be found on ACAP's Facebook page.  Photographs by John Cooper.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 May 2019