A trial using on-board cameras on fishing vessels to monitor accidental capture of seabirds, including the ACAP-listed and globally and Nationally Vulnerable Black Petrel Procellaria  parkinsoni, in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand’s North Island that commenced in 2016 is to be extended for another year.  The trial aims at testing how well cameras can monitor seabird bycatch compared to human observers while also gathering information on how many seabirds are being caught.

Black Petrel at sea, photograph by 'Biz' Bell

Footage reviewed so far shows cameras and observers see similar numbers of hooked seabirds. The camera footage is clear enough to enable species identifications.

The camera trial is being financed by the three company members of the Black Petrel Working Group and the subsequent data analysis is being financed by Fisheries New Zealand.

Information taken from a WWF-New Zealand press release.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 December 2018

The ACAP Secretariat extends season's greetings and its best wishes for an albatross- and petrel-friendly 2019 to all the readers of ACAP Latest News and to the nearly 3800 followers of the Agreement's Facebook page.

Short-tailed Albatross photograph by Aleks Terauds, artwork by Wiesława Misiak

Christine Bogle, John Cooper and Wieslawa Misiak, ACAP Secretariat, 24 December 2018

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