News is in from Stephen Horn, Project Manager for the “Million Dollar Mouse” project to eradicate introduced House Mice Mus musculus on New Zealand’s Antipodes Island, that aerial baiting finally commenced on 18 July after having been ready from the 9th.  The team arrived on the island on 27 May but spent the first week or so off-loading and setting up camp, which included building a helipad and erecting a hangar for the two helicopters to be used.

Antipodes Island with mouse-free Bollons Island behind, photograph by Erica Sommer

His on-line report (which contains a video clip of bait loading) follows:

“To eradicate mice we need to ensure bait is available within the small home-range of every mouse on the island.  Over the coming weeks we will complete two separate applications of Pestoff 20R Rodent Bait over the entire island. The interval between the two applications will be a preferred minimum of two weeks apart to ensure bait is available to mice for as long as possible. This helps to reduce the risk of any gaps in coverage due to conditions at the time of baiting (wind gusts affecting spread for example) or unexpected bad weather following bait application.  Two applications also helps to counter the small risk that some mice may be breeding at this time of year, in which case young mice could be force-weaned from the nest once the adult mice have died but bait may no longer be available or viable if only one application was used.

Saturday dawned much finer than expected with clear skies and even short periods of sunshine breaking the clouds sporadically.  The wind was still marginal.  We have been ready to commence baiting since the 9th of June and waiting for an opportunity to get started.  We walked up the hill to the load site to ground truth the information from the weather station and assess the wind gusts.  With some calmer weather forecast for early this week we were keen to identify any possible issues with our systems and equipment as the gear has travelled a long way and been handled multiple times since testing prior to departure.  A mechanical failure during a good weather day could result in much time being lost and with the forecast periods of calm weather seemingly slipping further ahead or just missing us we need to be ready to take full advantage of our opportunities.

We decided to bait a small corner of the north east part of the island and got started by 0930. The wind was slowly building rather than easing so we finished by 1030, quickly achieving what we wanted to do.  Although we only covered 2.6% (54.7 ha) of the baiting area it was hugely valuable for the team to iron out the kinks.”

Antipodean Albatrosses groom in their nest on the Antipodes, photograph by Erica Sommer

Click here to read more about the Million Dollar Mouse campaign.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 June 2016

The Ninth Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee (AC9) was held in the Hotel Club La Serena on the beachfront in La Serena, Chile over 9-13 May this year.  With the AC’s Chair, Marco Favero having taken over the position of Executive Secretary from retiring Warren Papworth earlier in the year, the Vice-Chair Mark Tasker took over the reins and chaired the meeting in Chile.  The Report of AC9 is now available online on this website (click here).

Ten of the 13 Parties to ACAP attended the Advisory Committee meeting.  Parties France, Norway and Spain notified their apologies for not being able to attend.  Delegates from three non-Party countries, Canada, Namibia and the USA, were present.  Both Namibia and the USA reported on their progress towards accession to ACAP; Namibia stated that it hoped to accede to ACAP by the end of the year.  Three environmental NGOs also attended as observers.  Unusually, BirdLife International was not represented at the AC meeting.

Prior to the meeting’s closure Nathan Walker (New Zealand) and Tatiana Neves (Brazil) were appointed Chair and Vice Chair of the Advisory Committee, respectively.  Mark Tasker, a veteran of ACAP meetings and previous AC Chair and Vice-Chair was appointed Convenor of the AC’s Taxonomy Working Group which conducts its work by correspondence.

The Advisory Committee accepted an offer from New Zealand to host the Tenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC10).  The meeting would most likely take place in late August / early September 2017.  The meeting closed with grateful thanks offered to the Chilean hosts.  Highlights of AC9’s deliberations will be posted in future articles to ACAP Latest News.

In the week before two of the AC’s three working groups met in the same locality.  The reports of the Population and Conservation Status and of the Seabird Working Groups were posted to this website recently (to access click here).

The French and Spanish translations of the AC9 report are currently being prepared and should be available on this web site by mid-July.

Pink-footed Shearwater, ACAP-listed and a Chilean breeding endemic; photograph by Peter Hodum

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 June 2016

Kerry-Jayne Wilson of the West Coast Penguin Trust has produced a 46-page review of the biology of and threats facing the Vulnerable and ACAP-listed Westland Petrel Procellaria westlandica, a New Zealand endemic.

The report’s three-and-a-half page Executive Summary states inter alia “[v]irtually nothing is known about bycatch of Westland petrels while in South American seas and this is potentially the most serious threat to the species.  Documenting bycatch in South America is the highest priority research recommendation and steps to mitigate South American bycatch are the highest priority management recommendations to come out of this report.”

The report also discusses land-based threats, notably light pollution, for this mainland-breeding species.

The review was funded by the Brian Mason Scientific & Technical Trust.

Westland Petrel, photograph by Susan Waugh

With thanks to Kerry-Jayne Wilson.

Reference:

Wilson, K.-J. 2016.  A review of the biology and ecology and an evaluation of threats to the Westland petrel Procellaria westlandica.  Charleston:  West Coast Penguin Trust.  46 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 June 2016

Dimas Gianuca (Environment and Sustainability Institute - University of Exeter, Penryn, UK) and colleagues have published a note in the Brazilian Journal of Oceanography on whether fishing lights can make longline hooks sink faster.

The note concludes:

“… our results indicate that the addition of EFL [electric fishing lights] did not improve substantially the sink rate of baited hooks, hence they do not support the hypothesis raised among fishermen that the utilization of EFL would help mitigate seabird mortality.  EFLs should not therefore be interpreted as a measure for mitigating seabird bycatch, and should always be utilized in combination with one of the line-weighting regimes recommended by ACAP and ICCAT best practices guides.”

Reference:

Gianuca, D., Rodrigo Sant'Ana, R. & Neves, T. 2016.  Influence of electric fishing lights on sink rates of baited hooks in Brazilian pelagic longline fisheries: implications for seabird bycatch.  Brazilian Journal of Oceanography 64.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1679-87592016092306401.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 June 2016