The Governments of New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Cook Islands, Dominican Republic and Fiji jointly submitted a proposal (UNEP/CMS/COP15/Doc.30.2.5/Rev.1), to list 26 species, subspecies and geographic populations of gadfly petrels in the genera Pterodroma and Pseudobulweria on either Appendix I or II to the Fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) that met last week in Campo Grande, Brazil.

The proposed petrels include single-island endemics and poorly known taxa.  They are mainly of low-latitude and tropical islands in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.  Four gadfly petrels are already listed on CMS Appendix I.  They are the Bermuda P. cahow, Galapagos P. phaeopygia, Hawaiian P. sandwichensis and Henderson P. atrata Petrels.

New Zealand introduced the proposal to list the gadfly petrels, noting they are “some of the rarest, most endangered, and poorly understood seabirds in the world.”  Many Parties attending COP15 expressed strong support in the Committee of the Whole (CoW).  The proposal was then submitted for adoption by the Conference of Parties, which formally adopted all the proposed taxa onto its Appendices on 30 March, the closing day of COP15.

The gadfly petrel proposal is available in English, French and Spanish (click here).

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement held a workshop in Wellington, New Zealand in 2017 with the objective of advancing understanding about best approaches for international cooperation in the conservation of Pterodroma and other small burrowing petrel species.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 30 March 2026

Wandering Albatross by Lea Finke of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for the inaugural World Albatross Day on 19 June 2020, after a photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Victoria Warwick-Evans (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Conservation Biology on the overlap between fisheries and Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans from two different colonies in  the South Atlantic.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Bycatch in fisheries is one of the most serious threats to pelagic seabirds, causing major population declines.  Mitigation measures can reduce bycatch substantially, but many fisheries fail to apply best practices, and seabird mortality remains high. Seabirds often segregate at sea according to sex and life-history stage, and bycatch risk can vary accordingly.  Few studies have tested whether spatial segregation among colonies in foraging areas affects bycatch risk.  We tracked nonbreeding wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) from Bird Island and neighboring Prion Island, South Georgia, to investigate whether differences in at-sea distributions and overlap with fisheries explain the contrasting population trends. Tracked individuals at Bird Island were of known status (immature or nonbreeding adults), and at Prion Island, they were most likely older immatures and potentially a few nonbreeding adults.  There was marked spatial segregation between age classes at Bird Island, but the pattern between breeding sites was more complex. The overlap with fisheries was highest in nonbreeding adults from Bird Island, which experienced a faster rate of population decline than at Prion Island, where overlap with fisheries was lower. Overlap was highest with Chinese, South Korean, and Taiwanese squid jiggers, Taiwanese pelagic longliners, and Argentinian and Spanish trawlers. By improving our knowledge of the spatiotemporal overlap of seabirds with fisheries, management initiatives can be directed at the fleets that represent the greatest threats.”

With thanks to Richard Phillips.

Reference:

Warwick-Evans, V., Pearmain, E.J. & Phillips, R.A. 2026.  Overlap of nonbreeding wandering albatrosses with fisheries and implications for colony-specific population trajectories at South Georgia.  Conservation Biology DOI: 10.1111/cobi.70260.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 27 March 2026

 
French, Portuguese and Spanish versions of this year’s World Albatross logo are now available to join the previously released English version.  All four versions, in landscape and portrait formats, may be freely downloaded for use in promoting “WAD2026” and its theme of “Habitat Restoration” on 19 June from here.

The Portuguese logo has been produced this year to recognize that the Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos, one of the two albatross species to be featured for WAD2026 with an infographic, posters and artworks, is a regular visitor to the waters of Portuguese-speaking Brazil, which is one of the 13 Parties to the Agreement.

This year’s logo has been produced by by illustrator Namasri “Namo” Niumim, who resides in Bangkok, Thailand.  Namo is not new to ACAP, as she has produced all the ACAP Species Infographics to date.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 26 March 2026

Westland Petrel, photograph by Raja Stephenson

Te Arawhetu Waipoua (Department of Conservation, New Zealand- and colleagues have produced a final report for the New Zealand Department of Conservation’s Conservation Services Programme (CSP) on the overlaps between Endangered and ACAP-listed Westland Petrels Procellaria westlandica and domestic longline and trawl fisheries.

The report’s summary follows:

“Seabird bycatch in fisheries is a major conservation concern globally, yet fine-scale evaluations of overlap, and thus, indirectly, risk, remain limited for many species.  Tāiko/Westland petrel (Procellaria westlandica) are endemic to Aotearoa (New Zealand) and exclusively breed at a single colony near Punakaiki on the West Coast of Te Waipounamu (South Island).  This species is highly vulnerable to bycatch in domestic fisheries, including surface longline, bottom longline, and trawl fisheries.  To quantify tāiko distribution and overlap with domestic fishing effort, we combined four consecutive years of broad-scale adult geolocation (GLS) tracking data (2021-2025; n = 146) with two years of fine-scale GPS tracking (2024-25; n = 37).  We applied two complementary analyses: (i) raster-based overlap, aggregating GLS tracking and fishing data into gridded surfaces to evaluate co-occurrence intensity across space and time, and (ii) point-based spatiotemporal overlap, measuring direct coincidence between individual bird GPS locations and E-logbook recorded fishing events.

We then contrasted these approaches with recorded bycatch events (n = 120; 2020-2025). GLS data revealed strong seasonal connectivity between Aotearoa and South America. However, surprisingly, tāiko occurred in Aotearoa waters year-round. Consequently, broad-scale raster-based analyses indicated year-round overlap with domestic fisheries, peaking austral mid-winter in core breeding areas and dominated by deepwater trawl, particularly for hoki (Macruronus novaezelandiea), followed by deepwater ling (Genypterus blacodes) bottom longline fisheries. Fine-scale point-based analyses showed incubating birds spent an average of 2.1 hours per day within 3 km of fishing vessels, with >98% of co-occurrence time near trawlers.  Contrasting with these co-occurrence patterns, recorded bycatch predominantly originated from deepwater ling bottom longline fisheries (despite high observer coverage in multiple fleets).  Our findings underscore that co-occurrence does not always directly translate to bycatch risk and that fleet specific catchabilities should be considered alongside other fishery- or fleet-specific nuances.  More importantly, our results highlight the current level of tāiko bycatch within the ling bottom longline fishery and thus further targeted efforts to reduce bycatch of this endemic species in this fishery is required.

Additionally, the deepwater trawl fishery would benefit from improved data collection, particularly to quantify warp strike risks, to place the current high co occurrence with low recorded bycatch into the necessary context. Our approach combining multiple data sources thus provided robust insights to guide evidence-based bycatch reduction strategies, without the direct need to employ highly complicated modelling exercises.”

Reference:

Waipoua, T., Rutter, J., Simister, K., Bose, S., Taylor, G., Rowley, O., Debski, I. & Fischer, J. 2026.  INT2024-08: Westland petrel overlap with domestic fishing effort.  Wellington: Conservation Services Programme, Department of Conservation.  29 pp.