Black-footed Albatrosses or Ka’upu Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan Albatrosses or Mōlī P. immutabilis are now incubating on Kure Atoll in the USA's Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Black-footed Albatross on Kure Atoll, photograph by Cynthia Vanderlip

An island-based team undertook the annual albatross census on Kure last month.  The survey was conducted over 16-20 December 2013 and resulted in totals of 2854 occupied nests of Black-footed Albatrosses and 20 703 occupied Laysan Albatross nests.  In addition, the single same-sex pair of Short-tailed Albatrosses P. albatrus was present once more (click here for the history of these two females, currently taking turns to incubate a single egg).

The female-female pair of Short-tailed Albatrosses on Kure

Photograph by Cynthia Vanderlip

“This is the 4th annual nest count conducted in as many years. Winter albatross counts were started in 2010, the year that year-round camps began.  It took a team of 6 people 5 days and 241 hours to complete the count.  Bad weather during the albatross count was endured by the team with winds gusting into the 30’s and 40’s and a high wind speed of 53 mph from the SSW on the 17th.  It rained 2.2” between the 16th-18th.”

According to the ACAP Data Portal 24 366 Laysan Albatross and 3434 Black-footed Albatross nests were counted in 2013 (= 2012/13, the previous season).

Kure Atoll is a part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and is the westernmost atoll in the North-western Hawaiian Islands.  Click here for job opportunities on Kure.

With thanks to the Kure Atoll Conservancy for information and to Cynthia Vanderlip for the photographs.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 January 2014

Eric Gilman (College of Natural Sciences, Hawaii Pacific University, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA) and colleagues write in the open-access journal PloS ONE on reducing seabird mortality during line hauling.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Bycatch in longline fisheries threatens the viability of some seabird populations.  The Hawaii longline swordfish fishery reduced seabird captures by an order of magnitude primarily through mitigating bycatch during setting.  Now, 75% of captures occur during hauling.  We fit observer data to a generalized additive regression model with mixed effects to determine the significance of the effect of various factors on the standardized seabird haul catch rate.  Density of albatrosses attending vessels during hauling, leader length and year had largest model effects.  The standardized haul catch rate significantly increased with increased albatross density during hauling.  The standardized catch rate was significantly higher the longer the leader: shorter leaders place weighted swivels closer to hooks, reducing the likelihood of baited hooks becoming available to surface-scavenging albatrosses.  There was a significant linear increasing temporal trend in the standardized catch rate, possibly partly due to an observed increasing temporal trend in the local abundance of albatrosses attending vessels during hauling.  Swivel weight, Beaufort scale and season were also significant but smaller model effects.  Most (81%) haul captures were on branchlines actively being retrieved.  Future haul mitigation research should therefore focus on reducing bird access to hooks as crew coil branchlines, including methods identified here of shorter leaders and heavier swivels, and other potentially effective methods, including faster branchline coiling and shielding the area where hooks becomes accessible.  The proportion of Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) captures that occurred during hauling was significantly, 1.6 times, higher than for black-footed albatrosses (P. nigripes), perhaps due to differences in the time of day of foraging and in daytime scavenging competitiveness; mitigating haul bycatch would therefore be a larger benefit to Laysans.  Locally, findings identify opportunities to nearly eliminate seabird bycatch.  Globally, findings fill a gap in knowledge of methods to mitigate seabird bycatch during pelagic longline hauling.”

Black-footed Albatross at sea, photograph by Aleks Terauds

Reference:

Gilman, E., Chaloupka, M., Wiedoff, B. & Willson, J. 2014.  Mitigating seabird bycatch during hauling by pelagic longline vessels.  PloS ONE 9(1): e84499.  doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0084499.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 January 2014

Jeremy Bird (BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK) and colleagues write in The South Pacific Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences on the numbers of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters Puffinus pacificus on a Fijian island preparatory to alien mammal eradications.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“A brief visit to Monuriki, an island in Fiji’s Mamanuca group was completed in March-April 2011 to gather baseline data on the island’s population of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters Puffinus pacificus prior to the eradication of alien invasive Polynesian Rat Rattus exulans and feral goats Capra hircus from the island in December 2011.  We estimated an island-wide population of 2,000-5,500 pairs of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, the largest population recorded in Fiji.  Productivity was estimated to be 40%.  It is anticipated these baseline figures will be used to assess the impacts that the removal of invasive mammals has on the population.”

Wedge-tailed Shearwater, photographed by Alan Burger

Reference:

Bird, J.P., Risalto S., Seniloli, E. & Tuamoto, T. 2013.   A pre-eradication survey of Wedge-tailed Shearwater Puffinus pacificus on Monuriki, Mamanuca Group, Fiji.  The South Pacific Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences 31: 45-50.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 January 2014

A pair of Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus are currently aiming to hatch their third egg on Eastern Island, part of the USA’s Midway Atoll.

Click here to watch a recent video clip from the nest’s webcam.

Midway's male Short-tailed Albatross incubating, photograph by Pete Leary

To access reports of the pair’s two earlier successful breeding attempts on Midway click here.

Access the ACAP Breeding Site account for Midway here.

With thanks to the Friends of the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 7 January 2013