The Vulnerable Yelkouan Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan that breeds through much of the Mediterranean Sea has been identified as a potential candidate for listing within the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.  News is now in that eight new eight marine Important Bird Areas (mIBAs) in the waters around Malta that had been identified by the LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project as significant for the shearwater have now been confirmed by BirdLife International (click here).

Yelkouan Shearwater at sea, photograph by Jerome Lagrand

The new mIBAs will also lend support to two other Maltese breeding procellariiforms, Scopoli’s Shearwater Calonectris diomedea and Mediterranean Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis.

The LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project reports:

“The eight mIBAs cover a total of 27% of the Maltese Fishing Management Zone (FMZ) which extends up to 25 nautical miles from Malta’s coastline.  The sites were identified based on scientific research including colony size assessments through seabird monitoring and land based observations, standardised vessel-based seabird counts, GPS and GLS tracking of seabirds, and modelling of expected occurrence using oceanographic data.  The sites are used by the three species for foraging and rafting during the breeding season.  The criteria which are the basis of their designation demonstrate their international importance for the three seabird species and the responsibility for Malta to protect them.

These areas provide an essential basis for the Maltese Government to declare as marine protected areas under national and EU law.  Once these areas are designated they will become Malta’s first Marine Specially Protected Areas (SPAs) under the EU Birds Directive and will become part of the EU-wide Natura 2000 network.  This will provide the necessary primary tool for the Maltese government to manage these sites in order to make them more seabird friendly, and ensure the future of Malta’s internationally important seabird populations.”

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 June 2106

The second season of hand-rearing Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis artificially hatched from translocated eggs on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu is going well.  Twenty chicks (from eggs collected on the nearby island of Kauai) are now being hand fed in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, where 10 successfully fledged the previous season (click here).  The reserve is not open to the public and a planned predator-proof fence will enhance security.

“In year three we will begin bringing Black-footed Albatrosses [P. nigripes] in hopes of establishing the first main Island colony of this species” (click here).

Feeding a translocated chick in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge

A translocated chick in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge among adult decoy models and wooden cloches

Read more in ACAP Latest News about the background and history of this innovative conservation effort by Pacific Rim Conservation, the first to use eggs, rather than chicks, collected in the wild.

Meanwhile, police investigations continue into finding the culprits who killed breeding Laysan Albatrosses in the Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve on Oahu in December last year with no reported arrests as yet (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 April 2016

Five Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs)* exist to monitor, offer advice and set regulations in an effort to ensure the sustainability of commercially-caught tuna and tuna-like species on the High Seas.  These five tRFMOs have been the focus of conservationists in the last few decades in an attempt to reduce the bycatch of threatened albatrosses and petrels drowned on pelagic longlines.  ACAP has been working closely with the tRFMOs, attending meetings of their committees and working groups.  In order to formalize relations ACAP has signed agreements (usually known as Memoranda of Understanding) with four of the five tRFMOs (click here).

ACAP has now completed these arrangements with the signing last month of “Guidelines for Cooperation” with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) “with a view to supporting efforts to minimise the incidental by-catch of albatrosses and petrels listed in Annex 1 of ACAP within ICCAT’s Convention area”.

The Tristan Albatross occurs within ICCAT waters, photograph by Martin Abreu

The three-page document sets out areas of cooperation between ACAP and ICCAT as set out below.

“ICCAT and the ACAP Secretariat may consult, cooperate and collaborate with each other on areas of common interest that are directly or indirectly relevant to the conservation, including the protection and management, of populations of albatrosses and petrels, including:

a)  development of systems for collecting and analysing data, and exchanging information concerning the bycatch of albatrosses and petrels in ICCAT fisheries;

b)  exchange of information, subject to the confidentiality requirements of the respective organisations, regarding management approaches relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels;

c)  implementation of education and awareness programmes for fishers who operate in areas where albatrosses and petrels may be encountered;

d)  design, testing and implementation of albatross and petrel bycatch mitigation measures relevant to ICCAT fisheries;

e)  development of training programmes on conservation techniques and measures to mitigate threats affecting albatrosses and petrels; and

f)  exchange of expertise, techniques and knowledge relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels in ICCAT fisheries and

g)  reciprocal participation with observer status at the relevant meetings of ACAP and ICCAT.”

The guidelines will be in place for six years, from when they will be reviewed and either renewed or amended.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 April 2016

*Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT)

International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)

Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC)

Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)

Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC)

In December this year 55 researchers from 30 nations will set off on an international scientific expedition from Cape Town, South Africa to circumnavigate Antarctica for three months aboard the Russian research vessel Akademik Treshnikov.  The Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE), set to last until March 2017, is the first project of the recently established Swiss Polar Institute.  The 22 selected research projects to be conducted range from glaciology to climatology, biology and oceanography.

Experienced seabird researcher, Henri Weimerskirch from the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, France, will lead one of the ACE projects entitled “Monitoring of threatened albatrosses and penguins: population censuses and distribution at sea”.  A description of the project follows:

“The aim of the project is to obtain vital new information on the population status of several threatened and/or globally important species of albatrosses and penguins.  The islands to be visited during ACE are those identified as top priorities for surveys of specific populations by the Populations and Conservation Status Working Group of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), or hold major populations of penguins for which no recent count data exists.  We will also validate the use of satellite imagery for counting great Diomedea spp. albatrosses.  In addition, depending on permits for access to some islands, the tagging of several key populations of albatrosses will allow for the first time the evaluation of habitat preferences of these top predators during the breeding season, which is critical for modelling the potential impact of climate and oceanographic change.  In addition, the tracking and isotopic sampling study will allow us to estimate the degree of overlap between albatrosses and penguins and the marine environment and measure overlap with fisheries, which are a major threat to several species.”

Southern Ocean islands planned to be visited during the circumnavigation that support breeding populations of albatrosses include the Prince Edwards, Crozets, Kerguelen, Macquarie and South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)*.

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross on Prince Edward Island, photograph by Peter Ryan

Read about the expedition’s other research projects here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 April 2016

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.