The focus of the study; a Cory's Shearwater grounded by lights; photograph by Beneharo Rodríguez

Elizabeth Atchoi (Institute of Marine Sciences - OKEANOS, University of the Azores, Portugal) and colleagues have published in the Journal of Experimental Biology a behavioural analysis of light exposure on Cory’s Shearwater chicks to determine factors influencing vulnerability to light pollution in seabirds.  

The paper’s abstract follows,

“Light pollution critically affects fledglings of burrow-nesting seabirds, leading to massive mortality events. The successful management of this pollutant depends upon a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing visual sensitivity and corresponding behaviours towards light. Factors shaping the development of the visual system could account for variation in seabirds' vulnerability to light pollution. We investigated how Cory's shearwater chicks respond to selected contrasting artificial light stimuli. Chicks were subjected to blue and red light treatments, and repeatedly tested throughout the nestling period. We analysed behavioural responses (number, timing and orientation of reactions) to determine how age, exposure to experimental light stimuli and spectra influenced the onset of visually guided behaviours, thus inferring drivers of vulnerability to light pollution. Repetitive exposure to light significantly increased the number of reactions, and chicks predominantly displayed light avoidance behaviour. We did not find differences in the number of reactions, timing and orientation between blue and red light treatments. The responses did not differ across different age groups. These results provide empirical evidence for the contribution of the light available in the rearing environment to seabird visual development. They support the hypothesis that differential exposure to light during the growth period influences responses to artificial light, and that the state of visual development at fledging could be a main driver of the age bias observed during seabird fallout events. It is thus important to evaluate lighting schemes in both urban and natural areas, and determine the as yet unknown consequences that may be affecting the populations.”

Reference:

Atchoi, E., Mitkus, M., Vitta, P., Machado, B., Rocha, M., Juliano, M., Bried, J. & Rodríguez, A. 2023. Ontogenetic exposure to light influences seabird vulnerability to light pollution. J Exp Biol. 226 (7): jeb245126. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.245126

5 May 2023

Two Black-browed Albatrosses interact on New Island, South Atlantic; photograph by Georgina Strange, poster design by Bree Forrer

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement is once again pleased to release a set of 12 freely downloadable photo posters for this year’s World Albatross Day with its theme of “Plastic Pollution” in a new language – this time in Japanese.   Previously, the poster set has been made available in ACAP’s three official languages – English, French and Spanish, and most recently in Portuguese. The ‘WAD2023’ logo is also available in Japanese.

Although not a Party to the Agreement, Japan has attended and contributed to ACAP meetings as a Range State*. The larger part of the global population of the Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus breeds on Japan’s Torishima. Japan is also an ACAP range state by way of undertaking fishing that interacts with ACAP-listed species, notably through its high-seas pelagic longline fisheries for tuna in the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern Oceans.

ACAP has previously made its Seabird Bycatch Mitigation Fact Sheets available in Japanese.

It is hoped the photo posters can be used within Japan to increase awareness of the conservation plight being faced by albatrosses and petrels and aid the country in celebrating World Albatross Day come 19 June.

A Northern Royal Albatross in flight off New Zealand; photograph by Oscar Thomas, poster design by Bree Forrer

With grateful thanks for translations provided by Yasuko Suzuki, BirdLife International Marine Programme, Tokyo, Japan.

* “Range State” means any State that exercises jurisdiction over any part of the range of albatrosses or petrels, or a State, flag vessels of which are engaged outside its national jurisdictional limits in taking, or which have the potential to take, albatrosses and petrels [from the Agreement text].

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 04 May 2023

Clockwise from left; offshore windfarm and transfer vessel, by Charlie Chesvick; an Argentinian Side Trawler by Leo Tamini; a Black-footed Albatross amongst plastic debris by Matthew Chauvin, "The Ocean Cleanup". The three photos represent items on the agenda for the suite of ACAP meetings taking place in Edinburgh 14 - 26 May

ACAP is in full swing with its preparations for the upcoming meetings to be held in Edinburgh 14 – 26 May which are being hosted for the first time by ACAP Party, the United Kingdom. It is only the fourth time ACAP’s meetings have been held in the northern hemisphere after those held in France (AC7), Norway (MoP3) and Spain (MoP5).

The Thirteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC13), the Eleventh Meeting of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group (SBWG11), and the Seventh Meeting of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group (PaCSWG7) will all take place over the two-week period. A Heads of Delegation meeting will also be held on Sunday evening on 21 May. 

Draft agendas, Meeting Documents and Information Papers for each of the meetings are now accessible at the ACAP website under the menu item, Documents, and subsequent meeting type (Advisory Committee or Working Group). Note, however, that some documents are password-protected so only their abstracts are publicly available. Specific documents have been translated into ACAP’s three official languages of English, French and Spanish.

Delegates will have the opportunity to take part in a field trip to the Scottish Seabird Centre which will include a boat trip around the islands of Craigleith and Bass Rock which are home to Northern Gannets and Atlantic Puffins, respectively. From left to right; a Northern Gannet by D_H Photo; an Atlantic Puffin by Arend Trent

Meeting delegates will also have the opportunity to engage in a number of social activities throughout the busy schedule of meetings. A highlight for most will no doubt be the field trip to the Scottish Seabird Centre and accompanying boat trip around the islands of Craigleith and Bass Rock. Whilst both sites are abundant in a variety of seabirds, Craigleith is known particularly for its colony of puffins, whilst Bass Rock is home to the largest colony of Northern Gannets in the world, approximately 150 000 in total.

3 May 2023

A 46-year-old Crozet Islands Wandering Albatross off Western Australia in January 2023, photograph by Nic Duncan

I first saw a breeding albatross in June 1979 on my first visit to sub-Antarctic Marion Island in 1979. I was there primarily to study aspects of the foraging ecology of the Crozet Cormorant Phalacrocorax melanogenis but could not fail to be impressed with the sheer size of my first Wanderer Diomedea exulans ensconced on its equally huge nest as it guarded its chick. In that year I was 32. During 30 more research and conservation management visits to the island over three decades, I must have walked past at a distance, or approached closely under a research permit, many hundreds of Wandering Albatrosses and their chicks in various stages of their breeding cycles. I looked at them, they looked at me. On my final visit in 2014, the very last Wanderer nest I have ever walked past was in quite heavy rain, the day before we left for home. Sploshing along through water-logged ground behind Goney Plain on a three-hour hike back to the meteorological station we did not dawdle for a photo. Maybe I should have taken a selfie at a reasonable distance with the occupied nest the prescribed five metres away? I was then 67 and looked much older that when only 36 in 1983 – as the accompanying photographs show. But of course, the albatrosses did not look any older! It seems to be a “thing” with birds that do not commonly show signs of ageing (although Wanderers are an exception as they, especially the males, do whiten with the years). This is one of the reasons why banding birds as chicks or fledglings, and thus of known age, is so important, nigh essential, to determine their exact age on resighting or recovery in later years.

Red beard. Banding a Wandering Albatross chick on Marion Island in November 1983 when I was 36; Robert Prŷs-Jones on the left holds the banding pliers, photograph by Chris Brown (left).  Grey beard. In April 2012, when I was aged 65, this curious non-breeding Wandering Albatross approached me as I stood still along the path on Marion Island’s west coast, photograph by Wouter Hanekom (right)

All the above memories of longevity and the passage (and effects) of time have come to mind when reading recently of a 46-year old Wandering Albatross photographed back in January at sea off Western Australia's south coast, in the Bremer Canyon, about two hours east of Albany (click here). According to the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme the bird (with a white BP9 plastic band clearly visible) was banded as a chick in September 1976, making it about 46 years old. Part of a long-term study colony on Possession Island in the French Crozet Islands, the male bird is known to have fathered 11 chicks with three different partners over three decades. The report goes on to say “However, his breeding days could be behind him, as successful breeding is difficult in older males and his last breeding partner has not seen since 2014.”

Wisdom (red Z333) the Laysan Albatross returns to Midway Atoll on 24 November 2022, one of her most recent photographs by Keegan Rankin, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

A good age for a bird then, but certainly not the oldest albatross known. First in the longevity stakes was “Grandma” a female Northern Royal Albatross D. sanfordi that bred for many years at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head on the South Island of New Zealand. Famous in her day (there is a video about her) she was estimated as a little over 60 when last seen in the breeding colony in 1989. Even more remarkable is “Wisdom” the female Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis on Midway Atoll, now at least 71 years of age and the world’s oldest known wild bird. She has been immortalized in poetry, artworks and a children’s book, and at one stage had her own active Facebook page. The many news posts to this website about her have all received more than average ”hits”. She has not bred this season but was seen back briefly on the atoll at her usual breeding spot (click here). Incredibly her rediscovery in 2002 was by the very same person who originally banded her in 1956, the late Chandler Robbins. Of course, over this long span, Chandler aged notably in his photographs shown here, just as I have done over my years with albatrosses. I was pleased to meet Chandler Robbins at a workshop we both attended on the population biology of the Black-footed Albatross P. nigripes in Honolulu in 1998.

The years rolled by, but Wisdom stays immutable. Chandler Robbins in his early years with an albatross on Midway Atoll (left) and and in his later years, with binoculars seemingly as old as himself (right)

For my part, I looked at the then oldest known Wandering Albatrosses on Marion and nearby Prince Edward Island recorded up to 2002, over two decades ago. There must be older birds to find now, but then the oldest ‘clocked in” was between 46 and 51 years of age. In my publication I pointed out these maximum longevities of half a century or so just as much reflected the passage of time from when banding had been commenced. So as the years roll on, a very few great albatrosses will be found to have lived longer – maybe for even a century, but for exactly how long no one yet knows!

I end with another observation from my field days. On approaching Wanderers, and closely related Tristan Albatrosses D. dabbeneena on Gough Island, for study purposes, both chicks and adults would tend to sit or stand up and defensively clap their bills. Then I would often say to the chicks “clap as much as you like, you will likely outlive me”. As I work towards commencing my ninth and possibly last decade in a few years’ time I do hope many of them will do just that.

Selected References:

Cooper, J. 1979. Editorial. Heading south. Cormorant 6: 3.

Cooper, J. 1985. Foraging behaviour of nonbreeding Imperial Cormorants at the Prince Edward Islands. Ostrich 56: 96-100

Cooper, J., Battam, H., Loves, C., Milburn, P.J. & Smith, L.E. 2003. The oldest known banded Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans at the Prince Edward Islands. African Journal of Marine Science 25: 525-527.

Cousins, K.L. & Cooper, J. 2000. The Population Biology of the Black-footed Albatross in Relation to Mortality Caused by Longline Fishing. Honolulu: Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council. 120 pp.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 02 May 2023