The Pacific Seabird Group held its 43rd Annual Meeting at Turtle Bay, Oahu, Hawaii, USA last week.  The meeting’s abstract book reveals that a number of presentations dealt with ACAP-listed species - listed below by authors and titles.

Subjects covered included translocations of Laysan Phoebastria immutabilis and Short-tailed P. albatrus Albatrosses, predation by House Mice Mus musculus on Midway’s albatrosses, fisheries bycatch and habitat restoration.

Valentina Colodro, Peter Hodum, Christian Lopez, Paola Gonzalez & Hannah Nevins: Restoring critical breeding habitat of the globally Vulnerable Pink-footed Shearwater (Ardenna creatopus)
Tomohiro Deguchi, Fumio Sato, Masaki Eda, Hiroe Izumi, Hajime Suzuki, Robert Suryan, Ellen Lance, Hasegawa Hiroshi & Kiyoaki Ozaki:  Restoration of the Short-tailed Albatross colony in Ogasawara Islands using translocation and hand-rearing of chicks: short-term outcomes of post-release monitoring
Jane Dolliver, Robert Suryan, Christopher Noyles, Ellen Lance & Catherine Yeargan:  Using satellite imagery to count nesting Short-tailed Albatross
Meg Duhr-Schultz, Ann Humphrey, Beth Flint, David Dow, Allie Hunter & Thierry Work:  Invasive House Mouse predation on adult nesting albatrosses and subsequent nest abandonment and mortality on Sand Island, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge
Nobuhiro Katsumata: Experiment to develop the mitigation measures of seabirds for small longline vessels in the western North Pacific
John Klavitter, Greg Schubert, Pete Leary, Scott Hall, Susan Schulmeister, Meg Duhr-Schultz, Dan Clark, Bret Wolfe, Ann Humphrey & Eric Moore:  Invasive plant Verbesina encelioides management at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge: advancing toward eradication
Edward Melvin, William Asher, Esteban Fernandez-Juricic & Amy Lim: Results of initial trials to determine if laser light can prevent seabird bycatch in North Pacific fisheries
Julio Hernandez-Montoya, Luciana, Luna Mendoza, Alfonso Aguirre-Munoz, Marıa de los Angeles, Milanes Salinas, Yuliana Bedolla-Guzman, Marıa Felix-Lizarraga, & Frederico Mendez-Sanchez:  Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) on Guadalupe Island, Mexico: population status, distribution, and advances towards the eradication of feral cat
Daisuke Ochi, Nobuhiro Katsumata, Kei Okamoto & Hiroshi Minami:  Evaluation of newly emerging seabird bycatch mitigation gears for tuna longline in the North Pacific
John Peschon: A summary of albatross band recovery data in the Hawaii deep and shallow set longline fisheries
John Peschon:  A summary of seabird interactions in the Hawaii deep and shallow set longline fisheries in 2014
Stacy Vander Pol, Colleen Bryan, Rebecca Greenberg, Yung Wa Sin & Scott  Edwards:  Mercury as a proxy for genetics analysis in albatross (Phoebastria spp.) eggs from Midway Atoll
Matthew Saunter, Naomi Worcester & Cynthia Vanderlip:  Habitat restoration at Kure Atoll Wildlife Sanctuary
Eric VanderWerf, Robby Kohley, Lindsay Young, Tom Savre, Jared Underwood & Joe Schwager:  Translocation of Laysan Albatrosses from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai to James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on Oahu.

Short-tailed Albatross on Midway Atoll, photograph by Pete Leary

The meeting also heard of studies on other species of procellariiform seabirds, including Hawaiian Petrel Pterodroma sandvicensis and Newell’s Shearwater Puffinus newellii, both endemic to the Hawaiian Islands.

Albatross researcher and conservationist Lindsay Young, a previous ACAP News Correspondent, received a Special Achievement Award from the Pacific Seabird Group at is 2016 meeting.

Reference:

Bachman.D., Starr, M.& Karnovsky, N. 2016.  Pacific Seabird Group 2016 43rd Annual Meeting, O’ahu, Hawai’i Abstract Book.  178 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 February 2016

The 6th International Albatross and Petrel Conference will be held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, from 19-23 September 2016.  Abstract submission and registration are now open.  Abstracts are due by 31 March.  Early bird registration is available at a reduced rate until 31 March.

The conference programme, including keynote speakers and workshops, is available on the conference website. The venue of the conference will be the “Paranimf of the University of Barcelona” right in the city centre.

Keynote speakers will be Francesco Bonadonna, Thierry Boulinier, Vincent Bretagnolle, Paulo Catry, John Croxall, Tim Guilford, Matthieu Le Corre, Daniel Oro, Petra Quillfeldt, Ewan Wakefield, Henri Weimerskirch, Andreanna Welch and Francis Zino.

The welcome reception and icebreaker will take place on 19 September from 17h00 onwards, at the “Observatori Fabra”, with an opening talk at 20h30 by Hadoram Shirihai entitled “What it takes to rediscover & discover six petrel species".

On 29 September two workshops will take place:

Workshop 1: Data Challenge on Behavioural Annotation, organized by Federic Bartumeus, Zuzana Zajkova and José M. Reyes-González.

Workshop 2: GLS data analysis: state of the art and future, organized by Yann Tremblay and Gaia Dell'Ariccia.

If you are interested in the workshops, you will find more information on the web site, and you should contact Federic Bartumeus This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Workshop 1) and Yann Tremblay This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Workshop 2) in February.

Tours and other activities will take place on 18 and 25 September, including pelagic trips and a visit to the “Delta Birding Festival”, amongst others.

Key Dates:

Abstract Submission Deadline - 31 March 2016
Early Registration Deadline - 31 March 2016
Decision about Oral/Poster Presentations - 31 May 2016
Registration Deadline - 10 September 2016.

Further information will be available on the conference website.

We look forward to seeing you in Barcelona!

Balearic Shearwater at sea, shearing...

Jacob González-Solís, Raül Ramos, Gaia Dell’Ariccia, Laura Zango, Virginia Morera, Marta Cruz, Joan Ferrer & Carles Giménez,  Local Organizing Committee, 15 February 2016

Three  Antarctic organisations have announced opportunities for early-career researchers.

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programmes (COMNAP) and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) are working together to attract talented early-career researchers, scientists, engineers and other professionals to strengthen international capacity and cooperation in fields such as climate, biodiversity, conservation, humanities and astrophysics research.

SCAR and COMNAP have again joined forces to launch fellowships for early-career researchers.  The SCAR and COMNAP fellowships are worth up to USD 15 000 each and up to six fellowships in total are on offer for 2016.  The fellowships enable early-career researchers to join a project team from another country, opening up new opportunities and often creating research partnerships that last for many years and over many Antarctic research seasons.  The deadline for SCAR and COMNAP applications is 1 June 2016.

The SCAR and COMNAP schemes are launched in conjunction with CCAMLR's Scientific Scholarship Scheme.  The CCAMLR Scholarship provides funding of up to AUD 30 000 to assist early-career scientists to participate in the work of the CCAMLR Scientific Committee and its working groups over a period of two years.  The objective of the scheme is to build capacity within the CCAMLR scientific community to help generate and sustain the scientific expertise needed to support the work of CCAMLR in the long-term.  The deadline for CCAMLR applications is 1 October 2016.

Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses, photograph by Rowan Treblico

At a small and informal ceremony at the end of January in the ACAP office suite in Salamanca Square, Hobart, ACAP's first Executive Secretary, Warren Papworth handed over the reins (and the key to the door) to Marco Favero of Argentina.  Following an advertising of the position Marco was chosen to take over from Warren as ACAP's second Executive Secretary in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain at the time of the Fifth Session of the Meeting of Parties held in May last year (click here).

Marco was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1963 and studied marine biology at the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata.  After his graduation in 1986, he started a 20-year research project in Antarctica, and later earned his Doctoral degree for his thesis on Antarctic seabird ecology.  His background in the biology and ecology of top marine predators comprises over 200 publications including research articles and presentations at scientific conferences.

Last day in the office, first day in the office.  Outgoing Executive Secretary Warren Papworth and incoming Marco Favero confer at HQ ACAP

Marco previously chaired ACAP's Advisory Committee, presiding over five meetings since 2007.  With his new role, the committee's Vice Chair, Mark Tasker, has taken over in an acting capacity until new appointments can be made.  Mark will steer the next meeting (the 9th) of the Advisory Committee, to be held this May in La Serena, Chile.

The ACAP Secretariat wishes Warren Papworth a well-earned retirement spending more time with his family, in particular his grandchildren after his six years at the helm, and looks forward to working with Marco Favero in the months and years to come.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 February 2016