The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition's newly released Plastic Pollution from Ships infographic 

A new infographic drawing attention to plastic pollution in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean from the shipping industry, including fisheries, has been released by the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC). Nets, fishing lines and traps are possibly the most obvious sources of plastic waste from fishing activities, but ASOC highlights numerous sources of marine plastics including, garbage generated on-board ships, micro-fibres from grey water waste, micro-plastics leached into the ocean from use in marine coating products, and the plastics found in containers lost overboard. The infographic is one of a series with a previous poster highlighting the threats to marine life and the wider environment posed by abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) or ghost fishing gear. ASOC's infographics are available to download at their website.

Marine life including marine animals such as seabirds, are navigating waters increasingly polluted with plastic waste. A report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that plastic consumption has quadrupled over the last three decades with production of plastics doubling between 2000 and 2019 to reach 460 million tonnes (Mt). Only 6% of global plastic production originates from recycled or secondary plastics and it is estimated that a staggering 30 Mt of plastic waste is currently present in the world’s seas and oceans. The United Nations has predicted that by 2050 there could be more plastic in the world’s oceans than fish.

To raise awareness of this serious and growing issue, ACAP has chosen Plastic Pollution as the theme for 2023’s World Albatross Day (WAD2023). Whether ingested and then fed to chicks or causing entanglements, plastics pose a significant threat to albatrosses. However, pollutants in the marine environment are not limited to plastics, with exposure to heavy metals, (such as mercury) and POPs (persistent organic pollutants, such as insecticides) also presenting problems for this incredible species and therefore will be included in World Albatross Day’s 2023 campaign.

A Laysan Albatross incubating its egg; photograph by Lindsay Young

Each year ACAP features particular albatross species in artworks, posters and infographics to promote World Albatross Day. Of the four species chosen for 2023, two species in particular underscore albatrosses plight with plastic: the Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses of the North Pacific, which are known to ingest more plastic than the southern hemisphere species. The globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatross D. sanfordi, endemic to New Zealand and the abundant and widespread Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris will also feature in the World Albatross Day campaign for 2023.

A mural of the plastic load found in the stomach contents of a Laysan Albatross chick that died a month before it would have fledged; artwork and photograph by Sheldon Plentovich

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14 October 2022

A Laysan Albatross feeds its chick; photograph by Pete Leary

Morgan Gilmour (U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, California, USA) and colleagues have published open access in Marine Ecology Progress Series (MEPS) on foraging patterns in chick-provisioning Laysan Albatrosses under varying environmental conditions.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Animals that regularly traverse habitat extremes between the subtropics and subarctic are expected to exhibit foraging behaviors that respond to changes in dynamic ocean habitats, and these behaviors may facilitate adaptations to novel and changing climates. During the chick-provisioning stage, Laysan albatross Phoebastria immutabilis parents regularly undertake short- and long-distance foraging trips throughout the vast central North Pacific Ocean. We examined GPS tracking data among chick-provisioning albatrosses in Hawai‘i to characterize habitats during short- and long-distance trips. The study period encompassed a marine heatwave (2014) and the cooling period after an extreme El Niño event (2016), enabling us to examine foraging habitats under novel and changing climates. First passage time and generalized additive mixed models indicated that during 183 short and 110 long trips (n = 32 birds), wind-assisted flight efficiency, proximity to productive areas, and moonlit-searching were important in both subtropical and subarctic habitats. Laysan albatross took foraging trips that had similar lengths and durations in 2014 and 2016 and visited similar areas, indicating that their foraging range did not expand in response to climatic variability. A strategy that uses similar foraging areas across years combined with reliance on environmental processes that enhance flight efficiency (wind) and that enable searching behaviors (moonlight) indicate that Laysan albatross exhibit complex behavioral plasticity that allows them to utilize subtropical and subarctic habitats affected by dynamic climate variability. This strategy may benefit their ability to respond to oceanographic and climatic change, including expanding warm water regions and changing atmospheric conditions influenced by global warming.”

REFERENCE

Gilmour M.E., Felis J, Hester M., Young L., Adams J. (2022) Laysan albatross exhibit complex behavioral plasticity in the subtropical and subarctic North Pacific Ocean. Marine Ecology Progress Series 697:125-147. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14148

13 October 2022

A still from an Australian Government's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water animation raising awareness of the imapcts of light pollution by Redboat Animation and Video (animation below)

World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) celebrations took place on October 8 with events highlighting this year’s theme of Light Pollution held across the world. In the lead up to the event, World Migratory Bird Day held two webinars, “Overview of Light Pollution Impact” and “Solutions and Policies to tackle Light Pollution”, which are now available to watch online. The webinars are available in both English and Spanish at the Environment for the Americas YouTube channel.

Speakers over the two days included: 

• Dr. Travis Longcore, Associate Adjunct Professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
• Dr. Jeffrey Buler, Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware
• Judy Pollock, president of Chicago Audubon Society

• Caesar San Miguel, Senior Policy Officer at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water of the Australian Government
• Ivo Tejeda, Director of the Network of the Red de Observadores de Aves y Vida Silvestre
• Marco Barbieri, Scientific and Technical Officer at the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)

An enormous diversity of birds, active both nocturnally and diurnally, experience impacts of light pollution. Seabirds such as petrels and shearwaters commonly get drawn into hazardous situations on land and on ships by artificial light sources. Solutions addressing the impact of light pollution are available and being implemented by governments, companies and communities across the globe. Internationally agreed guidelines on light pollution covering marine turtles, seabirds and migratory shorebirds already exist and have been endorsed by the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Encouragingly, new international guidelines focusing on migratory landbirds and bats are currently being developed under CMS and will be presented to CMS Parties for adoption at the 14th Conference of the Parties to CMS in 2023.

The webinars were presented in partnership with the Convention of Migratory Species (CMS), Environment for the Americas (EFTA), the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP). 

The Australian Government's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water's website has a range of resources and information on light pollution including tips to reduce its impacts on wildlife. Visit the website here to discover more information and how you can help.

Video courtesy of the Australian Government - Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

12 October 2022

Kitty Harvill (right) holds a bronze statuette of two Wildebeest, sculpted by South Africa's Peter Gray, part of her award received from Artists for Conservation President and Founder, Jeff Whiting (left)

In 15 years as honorary Information Officer for the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) my most enjoyable experience has been collaborating with Kitty Harvill, Co-founder of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN), and with all her many participating artists.  Over three years, ACAP has received more than 500 artworks depicting its 31-listed species from ABUN in support of World Albatross Day on 19 June, to use to create awareness of the conservation crisis faced by the world's 22 species of albatrosses.  Each year, a selection of ABUN artworks, including several by Kitty, have been chosen to create World Albatross Day posters, made freely downloadable from the ACAP website at a high resolution suitable for printing.

“Lost in a Rising Sea” watercolour by Kitty Harvill in support of WAD2022 and its theme of “Climate Change”, after a photograph by Koa Matsuoka, poster design by Michelle Risi

Kitty Harvill has now been recognized for her contribution to art and wildlife with Artists for Conservation’s (AFC) top honour: the Simon Combes Conservation Artist Award.  The AFC bestows the award annually to individuals for exemplifying the achievements and dedication of the award's namesake.  The award was established in 2006 and has become the world's most prestigious conservation award for visual artists.  Simon Combes was a prominent member of the AFC until his tragic passing in 2004, when he was killed in an encounter with a Cape Buffalo near his home in Kenya.

Artists for Conservation is the world's leading group of artists supporting the environment.  Founded in 1997, the non-profit organization comprises a membership of 500 of the world's most gifted nature artists from 27 countries across five continents.

The award comes with a certificate as well as a statuette

Kitty received her award last month at the AFC’s 12th annual International Exhibit of Nature in Art in Vancouver, Canada.  In her acceptance speech she said in part: “My journey to wildlife art is a ‘From Ashes to Beauty’ story.  When I lost my mother in 2004, I didn’t paint for two years. My mother and I had begun our art careers together.  When I was 18, I left home to pursue a degree in fine art and she went back to school to study art, at Austin Peay State University in our hometown of Clarksville, Tennessee.  She was 46. I was 46 the year she died, and I thought perhaps it was time for me to start a new career, at that age, just like she did, after my career in commercial art and illustration.  I started making trips to Brazil, not to paint but to photograph.  I immersed myself in the nature of Brazil with photography and thought that would be my new career.  But something interesting happened, after two years I pulled out a sheet of pastel paper and began a painting of a Giant River Otter that I’d photographed in the Pantanal.  My hand literally flew all over that paper for more than an hour and I just knew that this was my new career.  I believe my immersion in nature for those two years doing photography helped me to the point that I could paint again, and I certainly have.  To receive an award in honour and memory of such an iconic artist and conservationist as Simon Combes is both humbling and motivating - big shoes and footsteps to fill and follow.  Thank you so very much for this great honour.”

AFC President and Founder, Jeff Whiting, who presented the award on the first day of the festival said “Kitty is a rare kind of inspiring artist and conservationist, and an extraordinary role model of resourcefulness, creativity, persistence and passion.” (click here).

The Artists for Conservation Festival was accompanied by a book with a five-page chapter on Kitty’s award that includes her “All for One. One for All – Albatross” collage of all 22 albatrosses, available as a WAD2020 poster.  The 240-page book features 200 artworks by 178 artists from 19 countries

Among the most threatened groups of birds in the world, albatrosses and their allied petrels face numerous threats on land and at sea.  These include predation by invasive mammals on breeding islands, mortality at sea from fisheries, diseases, plastic pollution, and climate change and consequent sea-level rise causing flooding of low-lying breeding islands.  Kitty's and the ABUN artists' artworks are helping the Agreement work towards mitigating these threats.

Kitty has written to ACAP Latest News: "Vancouver was a wonderful experience in every way.  I am still floating above ground from it all!  I'm delighted that my albatross painting of all 22 species made it into my book chapter”. She adds: “I'm looking forward to working with ACAP once again, and on such an important topic as ‘Plastic Pollution’ for World Albatross Day next year.  The albatrosses always inspire!”

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement agrees and looks forward to collaborating once more with Kitty and her ABUN artists in January next year in support of WAD2023.

John Cooper, ACAP News Correspondent, 11 October 2022