Leigh Gurney (Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada) and colleagues have published in the journal Ecological Modelling on constructing an ecosystem model for South Africa’s Marion and Prince Edward Islands.  The paper’s appendices contain biological details of the islands’ nine regularly breeding species of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“A model of an ecosystem provides a useful tool for the exploration of management options to achieve desired objectives.  With the move to a more holistic approach to marine resource management, ecosystem models and the indicators that can be derived using them, are providing a means to move away from single species management and allow for the ecosystem effects of population dynamics to be explored.  This work describes the construction of an ecosystem model of the Prince Edward archipelago.  The archipelago consists of two islands, Marion and Prince Edward, which are situated southeast of the southern tip of Africa at 46°46′S, 37°51′E.  The islands are host to millions of seabirds and seals that use the islands as a refuge for breeding and moulting.  Using the Ecopath software, the ecosystem is described across three separate decades (1960s, 1980s, 2000s).  All trophic links are described based on the rich published literature that exists for the islands.  Local survey data for population estimates and trophic linkages were sourced for defining and quantifying the food web.  The system is summarised into 37 functional groups which include 4 primary producer groups at the lower trophic spectrum, and 14 land based top predator groups (seals and seabirds) representing the majority of the higher trophic levels.  Two detrital groups are included.  The food web is compared across the three time periods with transfer efficiencies declining for the higher trophic levels through time, suggesting a decline in energetic coupling between groups.  Comparison of the PEI ecosystem with eight other modeled sub Antarctic/Antarctic systems showed the ecosystem size (as measured in total biomass throughput per year, year⁻¹) to be lower than all other systems and was found to be most similar to the Kerguelen Islands for the ecological metrics assessed.  Future research priorities are highlighted based on an assessment of data availability, data gaps and sensitivity testing.  The construction of this model provides a much needed tool for the advancement of management for the archipelago, which have both fisheries and conservation concerns.”

Wandering Albatrosses at Marion Island, photograph by Marienne de Villiers

Reference:

Gurney, L.J., Pakhomov, E.A. & Christensen, V. 2014.  An ecosystem model of the Prince Edward Island archipelago.  Ecological Modelling 294: 117-136.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 November 2014

The ACAP-listed and Vulnerable Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni is restricted as a breeding species to Little Barrier and Great Barrier Islands in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf.  The species is at risk to land-based predators (on Great Barrier) and to fishery interactions at sea.

Black Petrel at sea, photograph by Biz Bell

New Zealand’s Black Petrel Working Group has now come together to pledge its support for the species (click here).  The group, with members drawn from fishing and conservation bodies and communities, met at the end of last month to sign a pledge with commitments that range from “continuous improvement in seabird smart fishing practices to supporting research to better understand the status and trend of the remaining black petrel population.”

The pledge’s text follows:

“Every year the black petrel (tāiko) returns to our shores after a heroic journey that spans thousands of kilometres across the Pacific Ocean.  These seabirds come home for summer, to the only place in the world where they are known to breed, on Great Barrier and Little Barrier Islands.

Once their breeding colonies were found through the North Island and parts of the South Island, and black petrels numbered in the hundreds of thousands.  Introduced predators have eliminated all of the mainland colonies and today there are only around 2700 breeding pairs remaining.  In New Zealand fishing activity is the main risk to the species nowadays.

We think the black petrel deserves to thrive and we’re taking action to make that happen.

Who are we? We’re the Black Petrel Working Group, a group of concerned fishers, environmental groups, government agencies, as well as local body, and iwi organisations. This is our pledge to take a stand and help black petrels regain lost ground.

Starting this summer, we pledge to:

• Expand the use of seabird smart fishing practices to avoid harming black petrels across all fishers in the Hauraki area (known as the fishing area FMA 1).

• Look for ongoing ways to improve how to avoid catching black petrels while fishing.

• Assist with the deployment of electronic monitoring and cameras on fishing vessels to prove our methods are in place and working.

• Support research into black petrel biology to better understand the status and trend of the remaining populations.

These commitments are part of a plan, to be backed up by measurable targets and milestones which we will report on yearly, when the breeding season ends and the black petrels depart our shores.

We know there’s a lot of work ahead, but with our collaborative approach we can share not only the workload but our collective expertise, learnings and most of all, our passion for the birds.

Many commercial fishers in the Hauraki Gulf already have seabird smart practices in place and we’re keen to bring everyone else on board too, including recreational fishers who enjoy the Gulf alongside the black petrel.

So we’re asking everyone to take a stand, to join the pledge and be seabird smart on the water, starting this summer.”

Click here and here (with a video clip) for media reports on the working group’s pledge.

What other ACAP-listed species might benefit from this approach?

John Cooper, AbCAP Information Officer, 02 November 2014

BirdLife Malta has reported 17 cases of young Scopoli’s Shearwaters Calonectris diomedea stranded inland due to the effects of light pollution in the past two weeks (click here).

“Insensitive lighting from coastal development misleads these birds inland, often ending with these birds grounded and unable to make it back to the sea.  Light pollution is one of the main threats for Malta’s shearwaters, not only causing these strandings but also the abandonment of entire colonies in the past.”

Rescued Scopoli's Shearwaters downed by light pollution in Malta last month, later successfully released

Photographs by Ben Metzger and Joe Sultana

Malta’s population of Scopoli’s Shearwaters has been estimated at around 4500 pairs, equivalent to an estimated 5% of the Mediterranean breeding population.  According to BirdLife Malta the main threats to the species in Malta are development close to the colonies, disturbance and persecution by humans, light and sound pollution and fisheries bycatch.

A number of other shearwater species are affected deleteriously by artificial lighting when fledging.  These include Yelkouan Puffinus yelkouan in Malta (click here), Newell’s P. newelli and Wedge-tailed P. pacificus in the Hawaiian Islands, Short-tailed P. tenuirostris in Australia, Townsend´s Shearwater P. auricularis on Mexico’s Socorro Island and Cory’s C. borealis in the Azores and Canary Islands.  Gadfly Pterodroma spp. and other burrowing procellariiform species are also affected at inhabited localities.

Selected Literature:

Gaston, K.J., Davies, T.W., Bennie, J. & Hopkins, J. 2012.  Review: reducing the ecological consequences of night-time light pollution: options and developments.  Journal of Animal Ecology 49: 1256-1266.

Raine, H., Borg, J.J., Raine, A., Bairner, S. & Borg Cardona, M. 2007.  Light pollution and its effect on Yelkouan Shearwaters in Malta; causes and solutions.  BirdLife Malta  54 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 November 2014

Dr Ross Wanless of BirdLife South Africa’s Seabird Conservation Programme received South Africa’s Nick Steele Memorial Award as Environmentalist of the Year at the 26th Annual SAB (South African Breweries) Environmental Media and Environmentalist of the Year Awards held in Johannesburg earlier this month.

Ross Wanless...

...and his award

Nick Steele was a South African game warden and author who worked to protect rhinoceroses in the 1950s and 1960s in KwaZulu-Natal.  Winners of the award are chosen from the top 10 finalists by a group of judges.  The award comes with a cash prize of South African Rands 25 000.

BirdLife South Africa’s Seabird Conservation Programme “has used science, advocacy, persistence and win-win solutions” to reduce mortality of albatrosses in South Africa’s trawl fishery for hake Merluccius spp. by over 95% (click here).

 “The SAB award recognises not just a lot of hard work over many years, but an individual who has been instrumental in delivering significant, lasting conservation outcomes.  Very few conservation programmes can actually demonstrate tangible benefits for species they seek to conserve”.

"It’s a real honour to receive this sort of recognition, but I do need to acknowledge that I have an amazing team at BirdLife South Africa, and this award is theirs as much as mine”, said Dr Wanless.

Ross was unable to receive the award in person, as he was then in South Korea running a workshop with the country’s tuna longline fleet to assist it in adopting best-practice measures to avoid seabird mortality

BirdLife South Africa’s seabird programme has already won two other prizes, one international awarded to staffer Bronwyn Maree, the other domestic, for its work in reducing albatross and petrel mortality in fisheries that has now been published in the journal Animal Conservation (click here).

Selected Literature:

Maree, B.A., Wanless, R.M., Fairweather, T.P., Sullivan, B.J. & Yates, O. 2014.  Significant reductions in mortality of threatened seabirds in a South African trawl fishery.  Animal Conservation doi:10.1111/acv.12126.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 31 October 2014