The globally Vulnerable Yelkouan Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan has been having a good breeding season in the Maltese Islands, home to approximately 10% of the global population of this seabird species (equating to around 2000 breeding pairs), according to a recent report by the LIFE Arċipelagu Garnija team of BirdLife Malta.

“The rat control [for both Brown Rattus norvegicus and Black R. rattus Rats] was perhaps most successful on St. Paul’s Islands which saw the biggest transformation with the removal of rats from the islet.  Six of the eight nests being monitored were successful in that the chicks made it to fledgling compared to the one out of the nine nests monitored in 2017.”

However, light pollution remains a problem for Yelkouan Shearwaters on Malta, although eight of nine fledglings affected that were found by the public were successfully released out to sea.

A Yelkouan Shearwater in its breeding crevice, photograph by Jérôme Legrand

Watch a video describing the last breeding season.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 September 2018

It has been six months since New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic Antipodes Island was officially announced as being free of introduced House Mice Mus musculus following an eradication campaign and two seasons later follow-up monitoring by the Million Dollar Mouse team, removing a threat to the island's biota, including to it seven ACAP-listed albatross and petrel species.

Antipodes Island: now mouse free, photograph by Erica Sommer

“In the winter of 2016, a 13-strong eradication team arrived on the main Antipodes Island.  They used helicopters to spread cereal bait containing the rodent toxin brodifacoum from specialised under-slung bait-spreading buckets.  They covered the island in two separate applications.  In February 2018, two mice breeding seasons after the program was delivered, a monitoring team arrived to determine the project’s outcome.  They deployed 200 inked tracking tunnels and searched the island for three weeks with two rodent detection dogs from the Conservation Dogs Programme supported by Kiwibank and the Auckland City Council.  No mice were detected, confirming the Million Dollar Mouse campaign successfully eradicated mice from Antipodes Island in the New Zealand Subantarctic.”

You can now watch a 20-minute video describing the successful eradication.

An Antipodean Albatross pair: no longer at risk to mice on Antipodes Island, photograph by Erica Sommer

Read more about the Antipodes’ eradication effort here.

The conservation focus has now shifted to the next goal: achieving a completely mammal pest-free New Zealand sub-Antarctic with the Maukahuka – pest-free Auckland Island project that aims to free the island of its alien pigs, feral cats and mice.  Read about progress with eradication plans at Auckland Island here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 September 2018

Autumn-Lynn Harrison (University of California, Santa Cruz, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Long Marine Laboratory, California, USA) and colleagues have published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on an analysis of tracking data from 14 marine species in the Pacific Ocean, including the ACAP-listed Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses, as well as Sooty Shearwaters Ardenna grisea.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“During their migrations, marine predators experience varying levels of protection and face many threats as they travel through multiple countries’ jurisdictions and across ocean basins. Some populations are declining rapidly. Contributing to such declines is a failure of some international agreements to ensure effective cooperation by the stakeholders responsible for managing species throughout their ranges, including in the high seas, a global commons. Here we use biologging data from marine predators to provide quantitative measures with great potential to inform local, national and international management efforts in the Pacific Ocean. We synthesized a large tracking data set to show how the movements and migratory phenology of 1,648 individuals representing 14 species—from leatherback turtles to white sharks—relate to the geopolitical boundaries of the Pacific Ocean throughout species’ annual cycles. Cumulatively, these species visited 86% of Pacific Ocean countries and some spent three-quarters of their annual cycles in the high seas. With our results, we offer answers to questions posed when designing international strategies for managing migratory species.”

Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses, photograph courtesy of the Kure Atoll Conservancy

Read more about the publication here and here.

Reference:

Harrison, A.-L., Costa, D.P., Winship, A.J., Benson, S.R., Bograd, S.J., Antolos, M., Carlisle, A.B., Dewar, H., Dutton, P.H., Jorgensen, S.J., Kohin, S., Mate, B.R., Robinson, P.W., Schaefer, K.M., Shaffer, S.A., Shillinger, G.L., Simmons, S.E., Weng, K.C., Gjerde, K.C. & Block, B.A. 2018.  The political biogeography of migratory marine predators.  Nature Ecology & Evolution doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0646-8.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 September 2018

The Southern Seabird Solutions Trust based in New Zealand is seeking bright ideas on how to keep seabirds out of deepwater trawl nets.

Warp strike mortalities, where birds are killed on the wires connecting to the trawl net, have been a widely known issue since the early 2000s but until recently, net captures had been reported far less frequently. In New Zealand, after successfully reducing warp captures, attention has now focused on an apparent increase in captures of seabirds in or on the trawl net itself.

Richard Wells of New Zealand’s Deepwater Group said the birds most affected seem to be several of the smaller albatross species and diving birds such as the globally Vulnerable (and ACAP-listed) White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis and globally Near Threatened Sooty Shearwater Ardenna grisea. Captures include birds that have entered the net or become entangled on top of it. Many are still alive after capture (30-60%) although their survival is not known after release.

“The vessels where this is a problem are factory processor stern trawlers, 45 – 105 metres in length. Most trawl fishing effort in New Zealand is bottom trawl and the capture rate for these vessels is double that of midwater trawl vessels. As well as strict offal control the industry has tried several methods to reduce the incidence of seabird net captures. We have recently tried some acoustic deterrent methods but these seem to only have a very short-term effect on the birds’ behaviour. Our crews remove as many ‘stickers’ - the fish that are caught in the weave of the net - as possible before the net is shot away so the birds aren’t attracted to the net. Some vessels try to close the mouth of the net by turning the vessel while they are hauling. This may help, but we know it is not the complete answer.”

Albatrosses gather behind a stern trawler hauling its net

A giant petrel climbs aboard a full trawl net during hauling as albatrosses gather around

View a short video and send your ideas to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This project is sponsored by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, Sealord Group and Deepwater Group.

Janice Molloy, Southern Seabird Solutions Trust, New Zealand, 12 September 2018