ACAP attended the 14th Scientific Committee meeting and the following 15th annual Commission meeting of the South East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (SEAFO) in Swakopmund, Namibia, over 19-30 November 2018, wrapping up a full year of ACAP representatives attending and contributing to international meetings (click here).  The Agreement was represented at SEAFO by Anton Wolfaardt, Co-convenor of its Seabird Bycatch Working Group.

Although the level of fishing effort within the SEAFO Convention Area is currently relatively low, the area is known to be important for a number of ACAP species.  In 2012, SEAFO adopted Conservation Measure 25/12: On Reducing Incidental By-catch of Seabirds in the SEAFO Convention Area, which replaced earlier Conservation Measures relating to seabirds.  CM 25/12 has been informed by ACAP best-practice advice, and applies both to demersal longline and trawl fishing.

ACAP presented two documents to the Scientific Committee meeting. DOC/SC/12/2018 provided an overview of the objectives and work of the Agreement, especially in relation to seabird bycatch and ACAP’s engagement with Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs).  DOC/SC/11/2018, which was presented jointly by ACAP and the SEAFO Secretariat, comprised a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate cooperation between SEAFO and ACAP to minimise the incidental bycatch of seabirds within the SEAFO Convention Area (click here).

The SEAFO Scientific Committee considered that the proposed MoU would be a useful mechanism to address seabird conservation issues, and recommended its consideration by the SEAFO Commission.  At its meeting the following week, the SEAFO Commission supported the adoption of the MoU with ACAP, which was signed at the meeting by its Chair, Venâncio Gomes. The MoU has subsequently been signed by ACAP’s Executive Secretary, Christine Bogle, coming into effect on 11 December 2018, joining 11 other MoUs ACAP has signed with RFMOs and other international bodies.

Delegates at the 15th Meeting of the SEAFO Commission, re-usable water bottles to hand; photograph by Anton Wolfaardt

Anton Wolfaardt, Co-convenor, ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group, 21 December 2018

Inaccessible Island, one of the United Kingdom’s Tristan da Cunha islands, is part of a World Heritage Site in the South Atlantic.  Uninhabited and hard to land on – hence its name – it is rarely visited by marine ornithologists.  Supporting four ACAP-listed species and free of introduced mammals it is an important seabird island.

The most recent survey, the fourth by the FitzPatrick Institute, has recently taken place, with 75 days spent ashore from mid-September to late November. Overall, the island’s seabird populations appear healthy, with increases in some of those surveyed, as summarized below for the ACAP-listed species.

Tristan Albatross

Two chicks of this Critically Endangered species were seen on the island for the first time since 1988, confirming that the island’s tiny relict population of just a handful of pairs continues to survive – in some years no chicks have been recorded.

One of the two Tristan Albatross chicks on Inaccessible Island in summer 2018/19.  The main island of Tristan da Cunha towers in the background 31 km away

Atlantic Yellow-nosed and Sooty Albatrosses

Numbers of both of these globally threatened species in monitoring areas were higher than in 2004 or 2009.  A total of 22 GPS-loggers was deployed on Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses (Endangered) to compare with tracking data from birds tagged on nearby Nightingale Island in the same season by Richard Phillips of the British Antarctic Survey.  Twenty of the loggers were recovered before the team left the island, of which 18 were successfully downloaded.

Spectacled Petrel

The Vulnerable Spectacled Petrel population, an Inaccessible Island breeding endemic, continues to increase, with ongoing range extensions recorded in the east of the island.  A new count approach using random transects, implemented with assistance from Tristan Conservation Department staff, suggests there may be as many as 30 000 occupied burrows on the island, considerably higher than the last estimate of 15 000 pairs in 2009, continuing the roughly 7% per year growth estimated since the 1930s.

As scientific papers emerge from this year’s surveys of the four ACAP species they will be featured in ACAP Latest News.

The Tristan Administrator, Island Council and Conservation Department gave approval for the Inaccessible Island research visit.  Tristan Islanders Leo Glass, Julian Repetto and George Swain gave assistance in the field.  The research team included Maëlle Connan (Zoology Department, Nelson Mandela University) and Ben Dilley (FitzPatrick Institute).  The South African National Antarctic Programme provided berths on the S.A. Agulhas II and helicopter support.

*Tristan vernacular names in parentheses.

Ringeye survey team on Inaccessible Island’s Cairn Peak; from left to right: George Swain, Julian Repetto & Leo Glass (Tristan Conservation Department) and Ben Dilley (FitzPatrick Institute)

Photographs by Peter Ryan

Selected Literature:

McClelland, G.T.W., Bond, A.L., Sardana, A. & Glass, T. 2016.  Rapid population estimate of a surface-nesting seabird on a remote island using a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle.  Marine Ornithology 44: 215-220.

RSPB & Tristan da Cunha Government 2010. Gough and Inaccessible Islands World Heritage Site Management Plan April 2010 – March 2015.  [Sandy: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds & Edinburgh, Tristan da Cunha: Government of Tristan da Cunha].  32 pp.

Ryan, P.G. 2005.  Inaccessible Island Seabird Monitoring Manual.  RSPB Research Report No.16.  Sandy: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 32 pp.

Ryan, P.G. 2007.  Field Guide to the Animals and Plants of Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island.  Newbury, UK: Pisces Publications.  162 pp.

Ryan, P.G. & Moloney, C.L. 2000.  The status of Spectacled Petrels Procellaria conspicillata and other seabirds at Inaccessible Island.  Marine Ornithology 28: 93-100.

Ryan, P.G. & Ronconi, R. 2011.  Continued increase in numbers of Spectacled Petrels Procellaria conspicillata.  Antarctic Science 23: 332-336.

Ryan, P.G., Dorse, C. & Hilton, G.M. 2006.  The conservation status of the Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata.  Biological Conservation 131: 575-583.

Peter Ryan, FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town & John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 December 2018

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the ACAP Secretariat and the South East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (SEAFO), coming into effect on 11 December 2018.

The primary objective of SEAFO is to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of all living marine resources in the South East Atlantic Ocean, and to safeguard the environment and marine ecosystems in which the resources occur.  The fisheries organisation currently has seven Contracting Parties, including ACAP Parties Norway and South Africa, as well as the European Union. SEAFO, which entered into force in 2003, has its Secretariat in Swakopmund, Namibia.

The region covered by SEAFO

The objective of the MoU is to facilitate cooperation between SEAFO and ACAP to minimise the incidental by-catch of albatrosses and petrels listed in Annex 1 of ACAP within the SEAFO Convention Area. Areas of cooperation listed in the MoU are:

development of systems for collecting and analysing data, and exchanging information concerning the bycatch of albatrosses and petrels in SEAFO Convention Area;

exchange of information regarding management approaches relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels;

implementation of education and awareness programmes for fishers who operate in areas where albatrosses and petrels may be encountered;

design, testing and implementation of albatross and petrel bycatch mitigation measures relevant to fishing operations in SEAFO Convention Area;

development of training programmes on conservation techniques and measures to mitigate threats affecting albatrosses and petrels; and

exchange of expertise, techniques and knowledge relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels in SEAFO Convention Area and

reciprocal participation with observer status at the relevant meetings of ACAP and SEAFO.

The new MoU, which is set to be in place for six years, joins 11 other MoUs ACAP has signed with Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) and other international bodies, most recently with the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA).

The MoU was signed by Christine Bogle, ACAP’s newly appointed Executive Secretary, and Mr Venâncio Gomes, the Chair of the SEAFO Commission.

Anton Wolfaardt, Co-convenor, ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group, 19 December 2018

News in about a month ago is that French marine ornithologists led by Henri Weimerskirch of the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) are to attach 60-70-g transceivers this austral summer to up to 250 globally Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans in the southern Indian Ocean. The devices will be able to pick up and record radar signals emanating from illegal fishing vessels up to five kilometres away, thus establishing their localities.

In an operation known as “Ocean Sentinel” vessel locations will be transmitted via satellite to the French Navy, which will then use the information received to identify vessels fishing in waters off the French sub-Antarctic islands of Crozet, Kerguelen and Amsterdam and attempt to intercept those deemed to be illegal (click here).

‘Vessels fishing illegally generally switch off their automatic identification system (AIS) to avoid being tracked by satellite, but they cannot navigate safely without emitting low-level radar signals which the birds’ transceivers can detect as they fly over the ships.  Sailing without radar in the rough waters of the Indian Ocean would be extremely reckless.  Radars mean safety, especially for illegal ships that have to detect and avoid naval vessels.”

Wandering Albatross at sea, photograph by John Chardine

Read more here and here.

Nathan Walker, Chair of the ACAP Advisory Committee reports to ACAP Latest News that “a few of the radar versions will be going out on Antipodean Albatrosses in New Zealand this austral summer”.  The system, developed by French and New Zealand scientists with Council of Europe funding, is also to be tested off the USA’s Hawaii in the North Pacific.

Reference:

Weimerskirch, H., Filippi, D.P., Collet, J., Waugh, S.M. & Patrick, S.C. 2017.  Use of radar detectors to track attendance of albatrosses at fishing vessels.  Conservation Biology 32: 240-245.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer,18 December 2018