Eduardo Gallo-Cajiao (Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Australia) has written in the journal Pacific Conservation Biology on the need for “adaptive management” to reduce the potential for albatross mortality (12 species at risk) in an Australian trawl fishery.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“To examine the current management of trawl fisheries is important to ensure albatross mortality is not being overlooked.  By-catch of albatrosses in trawl fisheries occurs cryptically, which has hindered the development of conservation policy.  The implementation of tasked seabird observer programmes in trawl fisheries, nevertheless, has shown that albatross mortality can happen at threatening levels.  Consequently, mitigation measures have been developed and adopted in some trawl fisheries.  Despite this, some trawl fisheries lack clear policy in relation to albatross mortality.  In this context, I investigated the management of potential albatross mortality in a state trawl fishery, the New South Wales Ocean Trawl, in Australia.  I conducted a literature search and addressed a set of questions to the responsible management agency through questions on notice at the State Parliament of New South Wales to understand albatross interactions from a policy standpoint.  My results indicate that current policy neither encompasses albatross mortality nor is evidence-based.  However, the combination of characteristics of this fishery and its overlap with albatross occurrence, along with the reported albatross mortality from other trawl fisheries, may warrant the need to collect empirical evidence on potential albatross interactions.  Hence, the responsible management agency should take action according to legal obligations.  In this scenario, I recommend the implementation of a tasked seabird observer programme, collection of baseline data, and adoption of adaptive management by the examined fishery.  As uncertainty can hamper conservation efforts because management actions require evidence, it is imperative to fill current information gaps in this fishery.  Additionally, an improved understanding of albatross mortality from individual trawl fisheries across different fisheries management jurisdictions will enable the prioritization of conservation efforts of this avian taxon in an international and multi-gear fishing context.”

Albatrosses mass behind a trawler, photograph by Graham Parker

Reference:

Gallo-Cajiao, E. 2014.  Evidence is required to address potential albatross mortality in the New South Wales Ocean Trawl fishery.  Pacific Conservation Biology in press.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 December 2014

Michael Force (Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California, USA) and colleagues have published in the journal Polar Biology on seabirds, including ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels, in the Drake Passage between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Drake Passage, extending from the southern tip of South America to the northern Antarctic Peninsula, is a dynamic oceanographic region with well-defined habitats delineated by the three strong frontal jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC).  Here, we describe seabird species distribution patterns across Drake Passage and test the hypothesis that species assemblages broadly reflect physical characteristics of the hydrographic fronts.  Strip-transect seabird surveys were conducted between Tierra del Fuego and the South Shetland Islands (700 km track line) during January–March (austral summer) over 14 years (48 crossings).  Locations of the latitudinally variable fronts were assessed using in situ shipboard data on sea surface temperature and salinity; areas of high variance were used to indicate frontal features.  We quantified five distinct species assemblages that correspond to biogeographic regions and relate to the positions of the Sub-Antarctic Front, Polar Front and ACC Southern Front.  Dense seabird concentrations coincided with regions characterized by highly variable sea surface temperature and salinity, suggesting that associated species assemblages reflect the mesoscale hydrographic surface as indicated by sea surface conditions.”

Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses in Antarctic waters, photograph by John Chardine

Reference:

Force,M.P., Santora, J.A., Reiss, C.S. & Loeb, V.L.  2014.  Seabird species assemblages reflect hydrographic and biogeographic zones within Drake Passage.  Polar Biology DOI 10.1007/s00300-014-1594-7.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 December 2014

‘Green Blue Red’ and ‘Yellow Blue Orange’ are currently the oldest Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi on view from the observatory at the Royal Albatross Centre on Taiaroa Head near Dunedin, New Zealand (click here).

The paired birds have constructed their nest for the 2014/15 breeding season and are currently incubating their 10th egg, of which seven have been successful.  At 27 years, they are the oldest pair of Northern Royal Albatrosses on view and have set-up their nest on the Quarry Track in exactly the same place as where they successfully raised a chick in the 2012/13 season.

The 27-year old paired birds at their nest

Their previous chick fledged with an insufficient amount of wind behind, causing it to crash land just off the coast of Taiaroa Head.  A Department of Conservation ranger was luckily on hand to pick the fledgling out of the surf to safety in his boat before a more successful take-off later in the day.

Tairaoa Head was once the home of the World’s then oldest known albatross, Grandma, who reached an estimated 60 years (click here).  The late Grandma has now been surpassed in the extreme age stakes by Wisdom, a well-known Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis on Midway Atoll, now breeding once more in what is thought to be her 64th year (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 December 2014

The Australian Government’s Threatened Species Commissioner has made AUD 300 000 available to expand rodent control (which commenced in 1992) in and outside of Norfolk Island National Park on Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean (click here).  This action is set to help protect the endemic Norfolk Island Green Parrot Cyanoramphus cookii which has declined in numbers to no more than a couple of hundred individuals, now largely restricted to the island’s national park and adjacent forested areas and orchards (click here).  Predation by feral Domestic Cats Felis catus and Black Rattus rattus and Polynesian R. exulans Rats are considered causative factors in the decline.  House Mice Mus musculus are also present.

The “funding will enhance the rat baiting program across Norfolk Island National Park and expand it beyond the park’s borders.  This will complement work to tackle feral cats [trapping of cats started in1989 within the park] and substantially reduce direct and indirect impacts of rats on native species and their habitats. The project will:

• increase the number of rodent bait stations across Norfolk Island National Park, including filling gaps in the park’s existing rat baiting network
• expand the existing network of bait stations to incorporate part of the bordering forestry reserve
• establish a program of ongoing servicing and monitoring to cover the expanded bait station network.”

The enhanced control programme is expected to help the island’s ground-nesting seabirds, including the Wedge-tailed Shearwater Puffinus pacificus with “several hundred thousand” reported in 1981 to be present.  However, the island’s population is thought to have declined significantly since the 1980s due to attacks by feral cats.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater, photograph by Alan Burger

Little Shearwaters P. assimilis (of the nominate race) were present at Anson Point on Norfolk Island in the 1970s but breeding is now confined to the much smaller and predator-free Phillip and Nepean Islands in the Norfolk Island group (where Wedge-tailed Shearwaters also breed).  According to the latest edition of the Australian Action Plan for Birds their disappearance from the main island is thought due to depredation by the island’s rats.  Flesh-footed Shearwaters P. carnepeis are also thought to breed on Phillip Island in small numbers.  In addition, three species of Pterodroma petrels breed on Phillip Island.

Norfolk Island (35 km²) is an external territory of the Commonwealth of Australia.  It has a human population of 2300.  The 6.5-km²forested Norfolk Island National Park centred on Mount Pitt was declared in 1985; it includes Phillip Island (added in 1996).

With thanks to Barry Baker for information.

Selected Literature:

Director of National Parks 2008.  Norfolk Island National Park and Norfolk Island Botanic Garden Management Plan 2008-2018.  Canberra: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.  96 pp.

Director of National Parks. 2010.  Norfolk Island Region Threatened Species Recovery Plan. Canberra: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.  183 pp.

Garnett, S.T., Szabo, J.K. & Dutson, G. 2011.  The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010.  Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing.  456 pp.

Priddel, D., Carlile, N., Evans, O., Evans, B. & McCoy, H. 2010.  A review of the seabirds of Phillip Island in the Norfolk Island Group.  Notornis 57: 113-127.

Tarburton, M.K. 1981.  Seabirds nesting on Norfolk Island.  Notornis 28: 209-211.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 December 2014