Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

ACAP Latest News

Read about recent developments and findings in procellariiform science and conservation relevant to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels in ACAP Latest News.

Newell’s Shearwaters are rescued from ship’s lights in Hawaiian waters

Land-based protection for the Endangered Newell’s Shearwater Puffinus newelli is being extended out to sea aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line’s 80 439-gt Pride of America, a large cruise ship that sails Hawaii’s waters each week (click here).

“The boat’s bright lights were attracting the birds at night,” says Robert Torres, the ship’s environmental officer, “so we had to figure out a solution.” Torres partnered with the Kauai’s Save our Shearwaters program and all the ship’s staff was trained in capturing and protecting the birds. Two cages are kept on board and, when a bird is found stranded on deck, the ship’s crew grab the cage and a towel and rescue it."

"Shearwater rescues are far less frequent than in the past. The birds navigate by moonlight and the ship’s lights can look like the moon to young birds flying for the first time. With the counsel of the Kauai program, Torres oversaw the replacement of all the ship’s exterior light bulbs with lower wattage ones that point down, not up and out. Between September and December – the months when fledgling birds typically first take flight – the ship’s passengers are informed and encouraged to close their cabin drapes and turn off lights when not needed. The ship has even darkened its NCL logo to protect native birds.”

A rescued Newell's Shearwater gets released, photograph by Elizabeth Ames

The Hawaiian-endemic Newell’s Shearwater is affected by light pollution ashore, especially of fledglings at the end of the breeding season as has been reported in ACAP Latest News on several occasions (click here).

Selected Literature on Ship-based Light Pollution:

Black, A. 2005. Light induced seabird mortality on vessels operating in the Southern Ocean: incidents and mitigation measures. Antarctic Science 17: 67-68.

Merkel, F.R. & Johansen, K.L. 2011. Light-induced bird strikes on vessels in Southwest Greenland. Marine Pollution Bulletin 62: 2330-2336.

Ryan, P.G 1991. The impact of the commercial lobster fishery on seabirds at the Tristan da Cunha islands, South Atlantic Ocean. Biological Conservation 57: 339-350.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 October 2015

A chance to make a difference: BirdLife Malta is hiring seabird conservationists to help the Vulnerable Yelkouan Shearwater

The NGO BirdLife Malta plans to hire four staffers for its new seabird conservation project “LIFE Arcipelagu Garnija - Securing the Maltese islands for the Vulnerable Yelkouan Shearwater” which is about to start soon. Four full-time posts to work with the Mediterranean endemic and currently Vulnerable Yelkouan Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan are currently being recruited.

Project Manager

The Project Manager will ensure the effective and efficient completion and management of the EU project, deliver the project results and manage the staff and volunteers involved in project delivery. Applicants are expected to have project management experience and good knowledge of birds and conservation, especially seabirds.

Project Wardens (two posts)

Project Wardens will undertake a range of duties at, or near to, relevant nesting sites of Yelkouan Shearwaters in the Maltese islands, including public relations, practical conservation and data gathering for research. Applicants are expected to have experience of practical conservation, research and public outreach.

Administration Assistant

The Administration Assistant will spend half of their time supporting the project through supporting the team and partner organisations with financial, clerical and related tasks. The rest of the time the Assistant will support BirdLife Malta’s general administrative workload, with a focus on servicing the membership. Applicants are expected to have experience of clerical and finance work with good customer service skills.

The closing date for submission of applications is 7 October 2015.

Read more with details of how to apply here.

Yelkouan Shearwater at its breeding site, photograph by Jerome Legrand

The Yelkouan Shearwater has been identified as a potential candidate for listing within the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 02 October 2015

The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary at 620 000 km² announced by New Zealand’s Prime Minister at the United Nations will help conserve seabirds

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, New Zealand’s Prime Minster John Key announced the intention to create a new large Marine Protected Area (MPA) covering 620 000 km² that will be centred on the chain of Kermadec Islands, 800 to 1100 kilometres north-east of New Zealand (click here).

The Prime Minister stated “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will be one of the world’s largest and most significant fully-protected areas, preserving important habitats for seabirds, whales and dolphins, endangered marine turtles and thousands of species of fish and other marine life. It will cover 15 per cent of New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone, an area twice the size of our landmass, and 50 times the size of our largest national park in Fiordland.”

The new MPA will be 35 times larger than the combined area of New Zealand’s existing 44 marine reserves. It will extend out to the 200 nautical mile limit of New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), from Raoul Island in the north to L’Esperance Rock in the south. It will be the first time an area of New Zealand’s EEZ is fully protected.

The new MPA is reported to support six million seabirds of 39 different species. Seven species of procellariiform seabirds breed on the Kermadecs, including Wedge-tailed Puffinus pacificus and Little P. assimilis Shearwaters, along with three gadfly petrels Pterodroma spp. and two storm petrels, Hydrobatidae. According to a 2011 report, nine species of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels have been recorded within the Kermadec region as non-breeding visitors, several of which, such as the Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis, appear to occur year-round.

Wedge-tailed Shearwaters

Rats Rattus spp. and feral Domestic Cats Felis catus were eradicated on Raoul, the largest of the Kermadec Islands at 29 km², between 2002 and 2006 by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation. The islands are surrounded by the Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve created in 1990 within 12-nautical mile territorial waters with an area of 7450 km². The Kermadecs, which themselves form a Department of Conservation Nature Reserve, are uninhabited except for a DOC field and weather station on Raoul Island.

The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will be a no-take, fully-protected zone with no commercial or recreational fishing or mining permitted. The New Zealand Government aims to pass legislation enabling the creation of the sanctuary by October 2016. Along with the USA’s Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, the Australian Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve and the United Kingdom’s to-be-established Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve a total of three and half million square kilometres in the southern Pacific Ocean will then be protected.

CCSBT and ACAP will discuss a Memorandum of Understanding next month in South Korea

The 22nd Annual Meeting incorporating the Extended Commission of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) will be held in Yeosu, South Korea over 12-15 October 2015.

The provisional agenda for the Extended Commission [EC] meeting states that “at the ERSWG’s [CCSBT Working Group on Ecologically Related Species] March 2015 meeting, the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) presented a paper which proposed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the CCSBT and ACAP Secretariats. The ERSWG commented on the considerable benefits already obtained through close collaboration with ACAP and the high importance of ACAP’s contributions to the ERSWG. The ERSWG therefore endorsed and strongly supported the proposed MoU. The EC will consider whether to sign an MoU to facilitate cooperation between the CCSBT and ACAP.”

Click here for an earlier ACAP Latest News report on developing an MoU between ACAP and CCSBT.

ACAP will be represented at the meeting by its Executive Secretary Warren Papworth.

Chatham Albatross, photograph by Matt Charteris

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 September 2015

Good for albatrosses and other tubenoses: Hawaii’s Lehua Island progresses towards rodent-free status

Lehua, one of the USA’s Hawaiian Islands, supports small populations of Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses (click here). Wedge-tailed Shearwaters Puffinus pacificus breed in large numbers (an estimated 23 000 pairs) on Lehua and the island also holds an important population of Bulwer’s Petrels Bulweria bulwerii. Newell’s Shearwater P. newelli and Madeiran or Band-rumped Storm Petrel Oceanodroma castro have both been confirmed breeding on the island in the past, although if any remain to the present day they are present in extremely small numbers. In addition the Christmas Shearwater P. nativitatus is suspected of breeding.

The uninhabited 126-ha island was the target of an eradication attempt in 2009 which failed to remove its introduced rodents. Field research with an aerial drop of non-toxic bait has now taken place towards making a second attempt to rid the island of rats (click here).

Lehua Island from the air

A Black-footed Albatross pair on Lehua, photograph by Eric Vanderwerf

"The results of the aerial drop project will provide guidance for the potential development of a new project to use a rodenticide to control Lehua’s invasive rat population. The project would be at least one year out."

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 September 2015