Verónica López of Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge has written to ACAP Latest News about an informal meeting to discuss aspects of the conservation of the globally Vulnerable and ACAP-listed Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus (PFSH) at the recent Pacific Seabird Group 46th Annual Meeting, held on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Pink-footed Shearwater, photograph by Peter Hodum

An edited summary received from Verónica of the topics discussed at the Kauai get-together follows:

The Recovery, Conservation and Management Plan (RECOGE) that the Government of Chile has approved for the PFSH. The Spanish version of the document is available here.  See also ALN’s posting on the plan.

Colleagues from Environment and Climate Change Canada introduced changes to the status of the species in Canada, and shared their potential projects for migratory seabirds.

Discussion was held on collaboration and sharing strategies as a group to help generate understanding and decision making in the conservation of the PFSH and other species

It was noted that the PFSH is a good example of a species that unites us and can help us understand threats to other species across both hemispheres in the eastern Pacific, such as threats to the Sooty Shearwater Ardenna grisea (globally Near Threatened).

“For [the] next steps, we hope to continue strengthening cooperation and incorporate people from other countries and institutions to build a bi-hemispheric working group for the species. We also want to explore the value of a technical working group within the Pacific Seabird Group”.

Attendees at the Pink-footed Shearwater get-together at the Pacific Seabird Group's 2019 Annual Meeting

Click here for plans to protect a Pink-footed Shearwater breeding colony with a new fence.

Recently a popular Chilean newspaper published a two-page infographic highlighting the Pink-footed Shearwater’s long migration and the efforts made for its conservation.

The 47th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group will be held in Portland, Oregon, USA in February 2020.

Wih thanks to Verónica López, Pink-footed Shearwater Team.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 02 April 2019

The replacement of approximately 4800 street lights on the Hawaiian island of Maui with LED (light-emitting diode) fixtures will threaten to kill or injure Endangered Hawaiian Petrels Pterodroma sandwichensis and Critically Endangered Newell’s Shearwaters Puffinus newelli according to environmental NGOs.

Newell's Shearwater, photograph by Lindsay Young

“Seabirds like the endangered Hawaiian petrel and the threatened Newell’s shearwater can be attracted to and disoriented by bright lights, circling them until they fall to the ground from exhaustion or crash into nearby buildings. Once on the ground, the seabirds are vulnerable to getting run over by cars and predation by pets and feral animals.”

Hawaiian NGOs brought a legal case in February to halt the street light refitting, warning that LEDs with a high blue light content can harm seabirds, proposing the use of LED bulbs that filter out blue light.

Read more here and here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 April 2019

Cruise vessels in New Zealand waters are being asked to dim their night lighting to avoid dazzling seabirds after globally Vulnerable and nationally Naturally Uncommon Buller's Shearwaters Ardenna bulleri came aboard the cruise liner Pacific Jewel late last year.

Buller's Shearwater, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Approximately 70 birds came aboard the vessel.  Some “died or were injured after the crew boxed them up together in some large boxes and delivered them to the Department of Conservation (DOC) once the ship berthed in Auckland.  By that time 20 were dead and a further 13 died despite treatment by Bird Rescue [New Zealand Bird Rescue Charitable Trust] which released the remainder after treatment.”

“DOC principal science advisor Graeme Taylor said bright lights on cruise ships posed a risk to seabirds flying at night in the Hauraki Gulf foraging for food and young birds departing from their breeding colonies on their first trip to sea.  Cruise ships were being asked to close blinds or curtains on cabin windows, reduce unnecessary exterior lighting, and try to shield essential deck lights to avoid attracting seabirds.”

The P&O's Pacific Jewel

Read more here.

Land-based light pollution is also a problem for many small procellariform seabirds that visit and leave their breeding sites at night (click here and here).

References:

Black, A. 2005.  Light induced seabird mortality on vessels operating in the Southern Ocean: incidents and mitigation measures.  Antarctic Science 17: 67-68.

Ryan, P.G. 1991.  The impact of the commercial lobster fishery on seabirds at the tristan da Cunha Islands, South Atlantic Ocean.  Biological Conservation 57: 339-350.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer 29 March 2019

Meg Duhr (Mid-Columbia River National Wildlife Research Complex, Burbank, Washington, USA) and colleagues have published in the proceedings of an international conference on island invasives held in 2017 in Dundee, Scotland on controlling House Mice Mus musculus that have been attacking and killing breeding Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes (globally Near Threatened) and Laysan Phoebastria immutabilis (globally Near Threatened) Albatrosses on Midway Atoll in the North Pacific.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Sand Island, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge (MANWR), is home to 21% of all nesting black-footed albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) and 47% of all nesting Laysan albatross (P. immutabilis) worldwide. During the 2015–2016 nesting season predation and disturbance by non-native house mice (Mus musculus), here documented for the first time, resulted in 70 abandoned nests, 42 adult birds killed and 480 wounded. In the following nesting season the affected area increased, resulting in 242 dead adults, 1,218 injured birds and 994 abandoned nests. Mouse predation activities triggered a mouse control response to reduce mouse densities in the affected areas using multi-catch live traps, kill traps, and limited use of anticoagulant rodenticides in bait stations. In 2016–2017 we applied a pelleted cholecalciferol rodenticide, AGRID3 (Bell Laboratories, Madison, WI), at a rate of 20 kg/ha in all affected areas. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of using AGRID3 to reduce mouse density and rate of mouse attacks on nesting albatrosses on Sand Island. Mouse attacks decreased and mouse abundance was reduced following rodenticide applications in the plots treated in December but changes in attack rates in the plots treated in January were not detectable and mouse abundance increased subsequent to treatment. The plots in the December treatments were much larger than those used in January and rainfall rate increased after December. A minimum size of treatment area may be necessary to achieve a reduction in injury rates in albatrosses. No deleterious effects were observed in non-target organisms. The casualties resulting from mouse predation (mostly Laysan albatross) represent a small proportion of the 360,000 pairs nesting on Sand Island.  However, the risk to adult breeding albatrosses representing such a large fraction of the global population prompted the United States Fish & Wildlife Service to prioritise mouse control efforts.”

Laysan Albatrosses wounded by House Mice on Midway Atoll in 2016

Read earlier postings on Midway’s mice in ACAP Latest News, including reporting on the final Environmental Assessment for a mouse-eradication exercise on Midway.

Reference:

Duhr, M., Flint, E.N., Hunter, S.A., Taylor, R.V., Flanders, B., Howald, G. & Norwood, D. 2019.  Control of house mice preying on adult albatrosses at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.  pp. 21-25.  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.  Occasional Paper SSC No. 62. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.  xiv + 734 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 March 2019