There once was an albie from Leith,
Who thought he had plenty to eat,
But his health eroded
'til his stomach exploded
For plastic digests not like meat

A limerick by Sybren Renema inspired Marc’s cartoon of 15 August 2015

Marc Parchow Figueiredo is a cartoonist residing in Portugal who in the 2010s produced a series of comic strips under the name of Qual Albatroz.  One of his last was a three-panel albatross cartoon in four languages to mark the inaugural World Albatross Day on 19 June 2020.  Previously he had drawn a cartoon in the same series for the Ninth Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee held in La Serena, Chile in 2016.  But his first cartoon especially drawn for ACAP dates back to 2013.  It alludes to the “killer mice” that attack chicks of the Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena on Gough Island.

“The Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, 15 September 2010

Marc now informs ACAP Latest News that he has moved on from his albatross cartoons.  Rather a pity, but good then that from his large portfolio he has made no less than 17 cartoon strips dealing with aspects of pollution affecting albatrosses available to ACAP to support this year’s World Albatross Day and its theme of “Plastic Pollution”.  Here are just two of them to whet your appetite.  The rest will be released over the next few months, culminating in “WADWEEK2023”, scheduled to take place from 13-19 June.

With grateful thanks to Marc Parchow.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 23 March 2023

Black-footed Albatrosses on Midway Atoll, photograph by Wieteke Holthuijzen

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement has chosen “Plastic Pollution” as its theme to mark the fourth World Albatross Day, to be celebrated on 19 June 2023.  This follows the inaugural theme “Eradicating Island Pests” in 2020, “Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries” in 2021 and “Climate Change” in 2022.

Four albatross species have been chosen to mark this year’s World Albatross Day, with posters, infographics, artworks and a music video.  They are the globally Endangered Northern Royal D. sanfordi endemic to New Zealand, the abundant and widespread Black-browed Thalassarche melanophris, as well as the northern hemisphere Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis, which ingest more plastic than do the other species form the southern hemisphere.

Following the release last month of the first six photo posters featuring the Black-browed and Northern Royal Albatrosses, ACAP is now making available for free downloading six more posters featuring the two northern hemisphere species.

A Laysan Albatross flies over Midway Atoll, photograph by Eric vanderWerf

Click here for all 12 posters in high-resolution versions.  All the photo posters for WAD2023 have been designed by Bree Forrer, ACAP’s Communications Advisor.  ACAP requests it be acknowledged in their use for conservation purposes. They should not be used for financial gain.  Versions in the ACAP official languages of French and Spanish will follow in due course.

With grateful thanks to photographers Wieteke Holthuijzen, Caren Loebel-Fried, Hob Osterlund and Eric vanderWerf.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 10 March 2023

A Black Petrel on Great Barrier Island, photograph from DabChickNZ

The main breeding site for the Vulnerable Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni on New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island is on the upper slopes of Mount Hobson/Hirakimata, where a reported 880 pairs breed in a colony that is the subject of a long-term study (click here).  In addition, around 25 pairs or so breed within the nearby Glenfern Sanctuary (click here).

A survey using two wildlife detector dogs in January this year has now found signs of breeding at a further two localities on the island: around Mount St Paul and the Needles Rocks inland from Oruawharo Bay on the island’s east coast, away from the main breeding colony to the north on Hirakimata.  Eleven active burrows were found, with adults, two chicks and an abandoned egg recorded.

“The weather has been challenging to say the least”.  Joanna Sims with Miro looking for breeding Black Petrels on Great Barrier Island

The survey was undertaken for Oruawharo Medlands Ecovision, a local community group on Great Barrier Island, by Joanna Sims (with dogs Rua and Miro) of DabChickNZ.  Read her report here.  In it she writes: “There could be more burrows here as this was not an extensive search.  The most predominant place burrows were located were deep inside puriri [Vitex lucens] trunks or in rocky crevices, that would be nearly impossible to locate without a dog”.  The newly found breeding birds are at risk to feral cats and pigs, the latter of which she saw signs of their presence at both localities.

The only other locality where Black Petrels breeds is close by Little Barrier Island, with 620 pairs reported in a 2016 publication.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 09 March 2023

Wisdom’s son, red N333, broods its second hatchling in February 2023, photograph by Catie Mahon, USFWS

While searching on Sand Island, Midway Atoll for the highly invasive Golden Crownbeard Verbesina encelioides U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteers came upon an incubating Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis with band number DH00.  A week later on 13 February the bird’s mate, banded red N333, was on the nest containing a pipping egg, which had hatched by the next day.

N333 is the first chick of Wisdom (red Z333), the world’s oldest known albatross, to be banded.  As a chick it had survived the 11 March 2011 tsunami that inundated most of Midway’s Eastern Island, as well as parts of Sand Island.  The bird, thought to be a male, was regularly sighted near Wisdom’s nest site over 2018-2021, but is now breeding some distance away. The current chick is N333’s second.  Wisdom’s first known grand-chick was found dead in May 2022 in the previous breeding season at around four months of age.

Access previous posts to ACAP Latest News on Wisdom here.

Information from USFWS volunteer Catie Mahon (click here) and the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge Facebook page.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 08 March 2023