The orphaned Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis egg that survived its incubating parent being killed as a result of a night-time human intrusion late last month at Kaena Point on the Hawaiian island of Oahu (click here) has now been placed in the care of a second foster pair after being found cold and abandoned for a second time, but still alive.  The second foster pair’s own egg had stopped developing, making them available to take over the orphaned egg.

The orphaned egg deserted by its first foster parents

The orphaned egg with its first foster parent

The first Kaena Point eggs have started hatching and it is hoped the fostered egg will hatch soon.

The police inquiry into the albatross killing continues, apparently with some progress (click here)

News and photographs from Pacific Rim Conservation.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 January 2016

Northern Royal Albatross with a hatchling at Taiaroa Head

A live-streaming web camera, nicknamed the Royal Cam, was switched on yesterday at a nest of the Endangered Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi with a six-day old chick on New Zealand’s Taiaroa Head.

“Currently a parent can be seen brooding a chick.  It will be fed regularly throughout the day.  In between times the adults will either be resting or nest building.  The web cam is facing south, so on a clear day you'll see Dunedin city in the distance.  Keep an eye out for cruise ships and other vessels sailing by, or for little blue penguins heading back to their nests at dusk.”

Short highlight videos are also being posted, that depict the young chick being fed and other activities.  The camera has an infra-red capability so activities at the nest after dark can also be followed.  Read more about the Royal Cam here.

Click here to follow a similar camera filming a group of Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis nests on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 January 2016

In November last year Namibia gazetted separate regulations to protect seabirds in its demersal longline and demersal trawl fisheries for hake Merluccius spp.  The Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources the Hon. Bernhard Esau, MP made the regulations on 18 August 2015 in terms of Namibia’s Marine Resources Act, No. 27 of 2000.

For longline fishing at least one bird-scaring line (BSL) must be deployed at all times during fishing operations.  The regulations give detailed information on line design and deployment, including when paired BSLs are deployed.

Two bird-scaring lines have to be deployed by trawlers when fishing.  Again, information is given in the gazetted notice on design and deployment.

The regulations came into force from 30 November 2015; contraventions may incur both fines and imprisonment.

Twin bird-scaring lines deployed behind a South Atlantic trawler keep Black-browed Albatrosses away from the warps

Photograph  by Barry Watkins

ACAP’s Fifth Session of its Meeting of Parties in the Canaries on the island of Tenerife last year in May heard from the Namibian Observer present that progress was being achieved in Namibia to becoming a Party to the Agreement, with the possibility this might happen in the near future (click here).

With thanks to Hannes Holtzhausen for information.

Reference:

Government Gazette of the Republic of Namibia 14 November 2015.  No. 5877.  Notices 269 and 270.  6 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 January 2016

Kate Helmstedt (School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia) and colleagues have published in the Journal of Applied Ecology on prioritizing and costing eradication of invasive mammals on islands, using four Australian islands as examples.  One of these, Macquarie, supports breeding populations of seven ACAP-listed species of albatrosses and petrels.

The paper’s summary follows:

“1. Many highly diverse island ecosystems across the globe are threatened by invasive species.  Eradications of invasive mammals from islands are being attempted with increasing frequency, with success aided by geographical isolation and increasing knowledge of eradication techniques.  There have been many attempts to prioritize islands for invasive species eradication; however, these coarse methods all assume managers are unrealistically limited to a single action on each island: either eradicate all invasive mammals, or do nothing.
2. We define a prioritization method that broadens the suite of actions considered, more accurately representing the complex decisions facing managers.  We allow the opportunity to only eradicate a subset of invasive mammals from each island, intentionally leaving some invasive mammals on islands.  We consider elements often omitted in previous prioritization methods, including feasibility, cost and complex ecological responses (i.e. trophic cascades).
3. Using a case study of Australian islands, we show that for a fixed budget, this method can provide a higher conservation benefit across the whole group of islands.  Our prioritization method outperforms simpler methods for almost 80% of the budgets considered.
4. On average, by relaxing the restrictive assumption that an eradication attempt must be made for all invasives on an island, ecological benefit can be improved by 27%.
5. Synthesis and applications.  Substantially higher ecological benefits for threatened species can be achieved for no extra cost if conservation planners relax the assumption that eradication projects must target all invasives on an island. It is more efficient to prioritize portfolios of eradication actions rather than islands.”

A male Wandering Albatross on Macquarie Island, photograph by Kate Lawrence

Reference:

Helmstedt, K.J., Shaw, J.D., Bode, M., Terauds, A., Springer, K., Robinson, S.A. & Possingham, H.P. 2016.  Prioritizing eradication actions on islands: it’s not all or nothing.  Journal of Applied Ecology  doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12599.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 January 2016