ACAP Latest News has previously posted on plans to provide fencing to keep out introduced mammals from entering globally Vulnerable Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus (PFSH) breeding sites on Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island, part of the Juan Fernández Archipelago.

News of recent progress comes from Verónica López of Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge’s Pink-footed Shearwater Team who writes to ALN:

“With support from NFWF [National Fish and Wildlife Foundation] and partners, Oikonos is installing an upgraded fence around one of the largest PFSH colonies in the Juan Fernández Archipelago to exclude cows, rabbits, cats, and dogs. The colony, called Piedra Agujereada (which means “rocks full of holes”!), hosts an estimated 1,000-1,500 pairs, and currently has a cattle fence around it to prevent trampling of shearwater burrows.

We hope this effort will encourage fence solutions in other remote colonies with limited infrastructure similar to the Juan Fernández Islands: (1) no car or helicopter access (only by foot or mules), (2) no on-site water source, (3) no electricity, (4) severe seasonal weather conditions (routinely exposed to hurricane-force winds), and (5) a cost investment acceptable to the island residents. To explore affordability, LandCare (New Zealand) also joined the effort and completed a cost-benefit analysis for protecting breeding pairs in this colony.

Mike Bell, Wildlife Management International, is designing the fence, bringing his expertise from the remote Chatham Islands and other projects in New Zealand.  Mike recently visited Robinson Crusoe Island with the Oikonos team to assess the site and share the value of conservation fences with the National Park agency CONAF.  Lindsay Young at Pacific Rim Conservation has also been advising the project on design and material cost options.

PFSH chicks have recently hatched and we have begun pre-fence monitoring that includes continuing the breeding time-series (begun in 2015 at Piedra Agujereada) and documenting predator encounters using cameras and carcass transects. After just a few days of camera monitoring, we have detected not only many rabbits, but also more cats and dogs at the site than expected.  This fence will be timely!”

Planned fence line at the Piedra Agujereada colony on Robinson Crusoe Island

Ussie time! Mike Bell of Wildlife Management International and the Juan Fernández Islands Pink-footed Shearwater crew in January

ALN will endeavour to make further postings on the fencing plan for ACAP’s most recently listed species.

With thanks to Verónica López.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 March 2019

On 28 January this year the environmental NGO Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge handed over the text of the proposed Chilean National Plan for Recovery, Conservation, and Management (Propuesta Plan de Recuperación, Conservación y Gestión  - RECOGE) for the globally Vulnerable and ACAP-listed Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus to Carolina Schmidt, Chile’s Minister of the Environment. The handover event took place in the Pink-footed Shearwater (PFSH) colony near the town of San Juan Bautista on Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile (click here).

Oikonos writes to ACAP Latest News:

“The RECOGE plan is the guiding document for species recovery in Chile (where PFSH are listed as Endangered), and the acceptance of the plan by the Ministry of the Environment was an important step toward creating official national policy.  The final RECOGE document was created through a collective effort by many institutions.  Institutions like the U.S. Geological Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF; USA), and Environment and Climate Change Canada have been fundamental allies in achieving these advances. Without their support and trust in our work, we would not have been able to advance to this point.

For Oikonos, this has been the work of many years, with major challenges, but always motivated by the possibility of national support for addressing threats meaningfully and improving the conservation status of PFSH.  We are grateful for the confidence and trust of the Chilean government in allowing us to help craft, coordinate, and lead stages of this process.”

A feral cat inspects a Pink-footed Shearwater burrow on Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile

Oikonos Chile Program Director Valentina Colodro delivers the Pink-footed Shearwater RECOGE document to Carolina Schmidt, the Chilean Minister of the Environment

 A special meeting to discuss the conservation of the Pink-footed Shearwater was held recently at the 46th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.  ACAP Latest News plans to report on the meeting’s outcomes.

With thanks to Verónica López, Pink-footed Shearwater Team, for information and photographs.

Reference:

Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge 2019.  Propuesta plan de recuperación, conservación y gestión de la fardela blanca (Ardenna creatopus).  31 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 March 2019

A report by Jason Jannot (Fishery Resource Analysis and Monitoring Division, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington, USA) and colleagues show that longline and trawl vessels kill mainly Black-footed Albatrosses Phoebastria nigripes among the three species of North Pacific albatrosses in USA’s west coast (Pacific) fisheries

A shortened version of the report’s Executive Summary follows:

“The California Current Ecosystem on the U.S. West Coast (Washington, Oregon, and California) supports a diversity of marine organisms, including seabirds. This report summarizes interactions between the U.S. West Coast groundfish fishery and seabirds, and presents estimates of fleetwide seabird bycatch based on data from the fishery and federal observer programs for the years 2002–16.

Lethal and nonlethal interactions, as well as sightings, are presented for five fishery sectors using hook-and-line gear, six sectors using trawl gear, and four sectors using pot gear. A total of 41 species interacted with or were sighted in these fisheries over the 2002–16 period. Twelve species are considered endangered, threatened, vulnerable, or near-threatened by the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) or the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The remaining 28 species are either not listed, or categorized as Least Concern (i.e., not at risk).

Three albatross species interact with these fisheries: black-footed, Laysan, and the ESA-listed short-tailed albatross.

To date, only one short-tailed albatross has been observed killed by these fisheries, and the mean estimated mortality for most years is less than one individual per year (Figure ES-1). However, black-footed albatross are consistently killed in a number of fishery sectors reported here. Laysan albatross have occasionally been killed by these fisheries, but the mortalities are few and infrequent. The estimated mean of non-short-tailed albatross mortalities ranged from a low of about 60 individuals in 2002 to a high of about 160 individuals in 2011 (see Other Albatross in Figure ES-1). The 2016 mean estimate of other (non-short-tailed) albatross was about 90 individuals. Other birds (i.e., not albatross) also showed a peak in mortality during the 2009–11 period of about 180–200 birds killed. The 2016 mean estimated mortality of other birds was about 120.

Hook-and-line fisheries account for the largest number of albatross taken among the three gear categories (hook-and-line, trawl, and pot). Hook-and-line fisheries account for 58–83% of seabird mortality in a given year, followed by trawl fisheries at 13–37%, and pot fisheries at 0–8% of bycatch in a given year (Table ES-1). The largest number of albatross taken comes from Limited Entry sablefish vessels fishing hook-and-line gears. This prompted regulations requiring streamer lines on hook-and-line vessels fishing in U.S. West Coast groundfish fisheries to be implemented in 2015. Bycatch of other species is generally split evenly between hook-and-line and trawl gears. Seabird mortality is likely underestimated on trawl vessels, because seabirds can be killed or injured by striking cables that exit aft of the vessel during trawling. These cables are not routinely monitored in these fisheries. Significant levels of bycatch, especially of albatross, have been recorded in similar trawl fisheries around the globe (Favero et al. 2011, Maree et al. 2014, Tamini et al. 2015). Pot gears appear to catch very few seabirds.”

Colur-banded Black-footed Albatross at sea, photograph by Vicki Miller

With thanks to Mi Ae Kim.

Reference:

Jannot, J.E., Somers, K.A., Tuttle, V., McVeigh, J. & Good, T.P. 2018.  Seabird Mortality in U.S. West Coast Groundfish Fisheries, 2002–16.  U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NWFSC-146.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 March 2019

Luis Adasme (Departamento de Evaluación de Pesquerías, Instituto de Fomento , Valparaíso, Chile) and colleagues have published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, suggesting mitigation methods to reduce the numbers of seabirds (which included 14 ACAP-listed albatross, petrel and shearwater species) killed by Chilean trawlers.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“In world fisheries, incidental non target species mortality have turned in a permanent debate issue.  Although many studies have dealt with these interactions from a descriptive overview, there is little information based on fishing operations data.  One of the most important species that have awakened scientific concern are seabird, being southern Chile one of the areas with the highest levels in this kind of interactions. In order to improve our understanding on these relationships, we analyze records of fishing hauls of industrial trawlers off the coast of Chile between 39 and 57°S. The results showed that incidental seabird mortality appears to be affected mainly by the collisions with net monitoring systems (net-sonde cable), the duration of fishing hauls, the year period, and the fishing zones, these last related to the breeding period and areas of albatross colonies. We indirectly address a probable relationship between seabird mortality and fishing discards, and some hypothesis are proposed to explain the results. Finally, we demonstrated that longer fishing hauls are less efficient for fishing, beside to a high seabird mortality. Our findings suggest mitigation actions that would harmonize fishing activity with the ecosystem, in particular, for trawl fishing management and operations off far southern Chile.”

A Black-browed Albatross falls victim to a trawler, photograph by Graham Parker

Reference:

Adasme, L.M., Canales, C.M. & Adasme, N.A. 2019.  Incidental seabird mortality and discarded catches from trawling off far southern Chile (39–57°S).  ICES Journal of Marine Science doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsz001.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 March 2018