New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) has reported on the start of the 2018/19 breeding season of globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi at Taiaroa Head.

Fifty-one eggs have been laid this season compared to a range of 30-35 eggs laid annually in the past five years in New Zealand’s only mainland albatross colony, with an overall maximum since colony inception of 36 nests with eggs.  Because a female-female pair is present, laying two eggs, the number of breeding pairs this season is actually 50.  DOC staff plan to ‘candle’ the eggs to ascertain how many are fertile.  Last season’s extreme weather resulted in a high number of failed nests and only 13 chicks fledging, compared with 26 and 23 chicks in the previous two years.

“Breeding usually takes place on a two-year cycle, however birds whose nests fail sometimes return the following season to breed again and this is the reason for this year’s increased nest and egg numbers.  We know some eggs will be infertile and one egg was found broken in its nest. While we can expect other challenges such as early embryo deaths, we’re still hopeful this will turn out to be our best breeding season yet.”

“Over the last few weeks we have replaced the irrigation system used to cool the albatrosses on hot, dry days by upgrading the piping to endure the increasingly extreme weather conditions.  We also have new egg-candling and supplementary feeding equipment which will improve albatross management.”

The very first breeding attempt to hatch a chick on Tairaroa Head, in 1938; photograph by Lance Richdale (read more here)

In the coming days the live-streaming “Royal Cam” web camera will be in operation directed at a nest as in previous years.

Read more here and here.

Up until yesterday, 132 colour-banded birds have been seen back in the colony.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 December 2018

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed in Hobart, Australia on 26 November between the ACAP Secretariat and the Meeting of the Parties (MoP) to the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA).

High-seas Area of the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement 

The objectives of SIOFA are to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of the fishery resources in the area and to promote the sustainable development of fisheries.  The fisheries Agreement currently has nine Parties.   Signatories to SIOFA include ACAP Parties Australia, France and New Zealand, as well as the European Union.  SIOFA, which entered into force in 2012, has its headquarters in La Réunion, France in the Indian Ocean.

The MoU with SIOFA has as its objective the facilitation of efforts to minimise the incidental by-catch of albatrosses and petrels listed in Annex 1 of ACAP that occur within the Area to which SIOFA applies.  Areas of cooperation listed in the MoU are:

1. development of systems for collecting and analysing data, and exchanging information concerning the bycatch of albatrosses and petrels in the Area consistent with the information-sharing policies of each Participant;
2. exchange of information regarding management approaches relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels;
3. implementation of education and awareness programmes for fishers who operate in areas where albatrosses and petrels may be encountered;
4. design, testing and implementation of albatross and petrel bycatch mitigation measures relevant to fishing operations in the Area;
5. development of training programmes on conservation techniques and measures to mitigate threats affecting albatrosses and petrels; and
6. exchange of expertise, techniques and knowledge relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels in the Area and reciprocal participation with observer status at the relevant meetings of ACAP and the SIOFA MoP, including its subsidiary bodies.

The new MoU, which is set to be in place for six years, joins ten other MoUs ACAP has signed with Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) and other international bodies, most recently with the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) (click here).

With ACAP’s third Executive Secretary, Christine Bogle, in office from this week, the MoU with SIOFA is the last to be signed (with Kristofer Du Rietz, SIOFA Chairperson) by the outgoing Executive Secretary, Marco Favero.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 December 2018

Starting today, the ACAP Secretariat has a new Executive Secretary as Christine Bogle from New Zealand takes up the position.  Friday last week was the last day in office for the outgoing Executive Secretary, Marco Favero of Argentina.

Changing of the guard: third ACAP Executive Secretary Christine Bogle with Marco Favero, second Executive Secretary

Marco, ACAP’s second Executive Secretary, in his last day in the Secretariat’s offices in Hobart took the time to write to ACAP National Contact Points, Chief Officers and Secretariat staffers saying “It has been a privilege to serve ACAP during the last three years in the Secretariat, and during the previous nine years as Chair of the Advisory Committee. I truly believe in our Agreement and the great value of the actions we undertake to improve the conservation status of albatrosses and petrels.  I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to all of you supporting the Agreement as well as my work in the Secretariat. This weekend I will fly back to Argentina to resume my work in the National Research Council, hoping to remain engaged with the Agreement from another place.”

ACAP thanks Marco for his service to ACAP and to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels.  As a token of their appreciation his grateful colleagues presented him on his last day in Australia with a 100 x 80-cm signed, limited-edition print of award-winning Hobart-based nature artist Katherine Cooper’s 2015 painting of two Shy Albatrosses Thalassarche cauta entitled “Out to Lunch”.  Fittingly, the globally Near Threatened species is a Tasmanian endemic, given that the ACAP Secretariat is based in Tasmania’s state capital city.

"Out to Lunch" by Kathy Cooper; Marco Favero's farewell gift

With the next meeting of ACAP to be held in Brazil next year, it is expected that Marco Favero’s presence will not be wholly lost to ACAP and that he will be able to continue to contribute to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels in his new role with Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET).  Hasta luego, Marco!

In the meantime ACAP looks forward to working with its third Executive Secretary in the years ahead.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 December 2018

The non-profit Associação R3 Animal (R3 Animal), based in the State of Santa Caterina in southern Brazil, through the Beach-monitoring Project of the Santos Basin (Projeto de Monitoramento de Praias da Bacia de Santos, PMP-BS) has recently rehabilitated two ACAP-listed species.  Details follow.

Southern Giant Petrel

A Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus (Least Concern), perhaps a sub-adult by its rather dark and uniform plumage, was found by a fisher on a beach in Florianópolis on the Brazian island of Santa Catarina on 7 September 2018 and delivered to R3 Animal via the Environmental Military Police of Santa Catarina.

“According to Veterinary Doctor Marzia Antonelli the petrel was apathetic, with respiratory problems associated with dehydration, pelvic limb laceration and gastrointestinal disorders, and a large amount of ectoparasites (lice)” [in translation].

Due to its poor condition it was kept in an isolated and heated place on arrival, later being moved to an outer enclosure where it was fed fish and could use a swimming pool to improve waterproofing of its feathers.  After passing through clinical and blood and parasitological examinations, the giant petrel was released on the beach at Barra do Lagoa on 27 September.

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross

A globally Endangered Atlantic Yellow-Nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos was rescued from the waves where it appeared unable to take flight by an PMP-BS team near the Universidade do Vale do Itajaí, north of Florianópolis on 27 October 2018.  It was taken to the PMP-BS stabilisation unit in Penha, Santa Caterina, being very apathetic on arrival.  “There were many ticks around the eyes, lice spread throughout the body and inflammation in the members” [in translation].

On 6 November the albatross was transferred to R3 Animal in Florianópolis where it received medication, went through blood and faeces tests and started on a rehabilitation process which included physiotherapy and waterproofing of feathers.  The albatross, an adult by its appearance in photographs, was released at sea on 14 November; and can be seen to fly off strongly in a video clip.

The mission of R3 Animal is to Rescue, Rehabilitate and Reintegrate wild animals into their natural habitat.  (see R3 Animal’s website in English and its Facebook page).  PMP-BS aims to assess the possible impacts of oil production and disposal activities on birds, turtles and marine mammals by monitoring beaches, providing veterinary care to live animals and undertaking necropsies of dead animals.

With thanks to Associação R3 Animal for information and photographs.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 November 2018