Kauai’s sixth Small Indian Mongoose, live trapped on 05 May 2023, photograph from the Hawai’i Department of Health

The Hawaiian island of Kaua’i is home to important breeding populations of Endangered Hawaiian Petrels Pterodroma sandwichensis and Critically Endangered Newell’s Shearwaters Puffinus newelli. On the island both seabird species are at risk to predation by feral cats and domestic pigs, but not as yet to mongooses.

Small Indian Mongooses Urva auropunctata were first introduced in 1883 to the main Hawaiian Islands from Jamaica (although native to Asia) to control rats in sugarcane fields. They are now widespread on the Big Island of Hawaii, Oahu, Maui and Molokai. Kauai so far remains free of an established population. However, at least six mongooses have been definitely recorded on Kauai over the last five decades as listed below (click here for more details). Five of the six have been live-trapped and then euthanized by the Hawai’i Department of Health – Vector Control Branch and the Kaua’i Invasive Species Committee after initial sightings. The most recent mongoose on Kauai was caught after a week from its initial sighting this month by deploying no less than 43 live traps. In addition, there have been hundreds of unconfirmed sightings on the island since 1968, raising concerns there could be a breeding population in existence. However, biological evidence for this is said to be scant, following an island-wide status review that also developed standard response protocols for sightings .

Definite Records

1976. Lactating female found dead along a road near Kalaheo

May 2012. Adult male captured near the Lihue Airport

June 2012. Captured near the Nawiliwili Harbour (click here)

October 2016. Captured at Lihue Airport

December 2021. Captured in Nawiliwili Harbour (click here)

April/May 2023. Captured in Nawiliwili Harbour (click here)

The fifth Small Indian Mongoose recorded on Kauai, 28 December 2012, photograph from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture

Read more here.

Reference:

Duffy, D. C. & Capece, P.I. 2014. Depredation of endangered burrowing seabirds in Hawai’i: management priorities. Marine Ornithology 42: 149-152. (click here)

Phillips, R.B. & Lucey, B.  2015? Kauai Mongoose Standard Operating Procedures to Conduct an Island-wide Status Assessment and Early Detection Rapid Response. [Kapaa: Kaua’i Invasive Species Committee]. 24 pp.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 31 May 2023

Delegates attending the Thirteenth Meeting of the ACAP Advisory Committee gather for the official photo outside Queen Elizabeth House, Edinburgh, Scotland, photograph by Bree Forrer

Two-weeks of intense and productive talks concluded in Edinburgh, Scotland with the Thirteenth Meeting of the ACAP Advisory Committee (AC13) adopting its report last Friday. 

AC13 spent last week considering the recommendations put forward in the reports from its Working Group meetings held the previous week. The reports of the Seabird Bycatch (SBWG11) and Population and Conservation Status (PaCSWG7) Working Groups and the joint meeting of both Working Groups (Joint SBWG11-PaCSWG7) are now available on the ACAP website (see AC13 Docs 9, 11 & 12).  The report of the ACAP Taxonomy Working Group (AC13 Doc 10), which conducts its business online, was also considered by the Advisory Committee.

The report of the 13th Meeting of the Advisory Committee in the three official languages of English, France and Spanish will be published on the ACAP website.

The day before report adoption, delegates were treated to a superb day out to the Scottish Seabird Centre, a conservation and education charity located approximately an hour east of Edinburgh in the pretty seaside town of North Berwick. The centre manages several islands that are home to internationally important breeding seabird populations. 

AC13 Delegates aboard the boat ready to take in a wonderful afternoon spotting seabirds (left); and the iconic Bass Rock with its distinctive lighthouse looms in the distance (right). The rock appears white due to the thousands of Northern Gannets nesting and their guano staining the rock's surface, photographs by Bree Forrer

Delegates enjoyed a presentation from the centre and explored its interactive education facilities before heading out on a boat trip around the islands of Bass Rock and Craigleith. The iconic Bass Rock is a steep volcanic monolith which has supported up to 150 000 Northern Gannets, plus smaller numbers of European Shags, Common Guillemots (Common Murres) and Razorbills. Craigleith, one of the smaller islands in the chain is inhabited by a variety of seabirds, including the crowd favourite, the Atlantic Puffin.

Atlantic Puffins were high on the group's wish list of birds to see on the outing and delegates did not leave disappointed, photograph by Patricia Serafini

In May 2022, the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (sub-type H5N1) was confirmed on Bass Rock and thousands of Northern Gannets became infected and died. Staff at the Seabird Centre are hoping to carry out a census over the coming summer to gauge population numbers.

Northern Gannets crowd the volcanic rock of the Bass (as it is known locally), photograph by Bree Forrer

The outing, though sobering with the knowledge of the devastation caused by H5N1 in seabird colonies in Scotland and across the world, was thoroughly enjoyed by delegates who witnessed thousands of seabirds in their natural habitats. The day was a poignant reminder of the importance of continuing to strive for the conservation of albatrosses and petrels against the many threats they face.

29 May 2023

Layan Albatrosses, Kauai, photograph by Hob Osterlund, poster design by Bree Forrer

Continuing with its outreach to Asian high-seas fishing countries, the Albatross and Petrel Agreement is today releasing its set of 12 freely downloadable photo posters for this year’s World Albatross Day with its theme of “Plastic Pollution” in the Indonesian language, known as Bahasa Indonesia. This latest release follows versions in Japanese and Korean. Previously, the poster set has been made available in ACAP’s three official languages of English, French and Spanish, as well as in Portuguese. The ‘WAD2023’ logo is also available in Indonesian, and in the other six languages.

View and download the WAD2023 photo posters in Indonesian and in the other six languages here.  They are also available in individual language albums on the ACAP Facebook page.

Indonesia is not a Party to the Agreement, nor has a breeding population of an ACAP-listed species. However, it is an ACAP range state* by way of undertaking fishing that interacts with ACAP-listed species, notably through its high-seas longline fisheries for tuna in the Indian and Pacific Oceans (click here). Indonesia is a member of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). All these Regional Fisheries Management Organizations that manage high-seas tuna stocks (tRFMOs) have adopted seabird bycatch mitigation measures that apply to their member states.

ACAP has made its Seabird Bycatch Mitigation Fact Sheets available in Indonesian. An Indonesian version of the ACAP Seabird Bycatch ID Guide is also planned.

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

A colour-banded Black-browed Albatross stands over its chick on Bird Island in the South Atlantic, photograph by Erin Taylor, poster design by Bree Forrer

The photo poster set will be released in Simplified and Traditional Chinese in June, completing this year’s outreach to Asia in support of World Albatross Day on the 19th.

With grateful thanks for help with translations from Fransisca Noni Tirtaningtyas, Burung Laut Indonesia (Seabirds Indonesia) and Vivian Fu, East Asian-Australasian Flyway and to photographers Hob Osterlund and Erin Taylor.

* “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, 25 May 2023

Tracks as on 13 May of juvenile Black-browed Albatrosses fledged from Bird Island in 2023; click here to view the most recent tracks

In a study that commenced in 2021, 26 fledging Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris on Bird Island in the South Atlantic were fitted in April this year with satellite transmitters in a project run by Richard Phillips of the British Antarctic Survey. The main aims of this study are to map the distribution of juvenile birds to determine overlap with fisheries and the main environmental drivers of their movements, and to assess the survival rate of juveniles in the critical months after they fledge.

The young birds are being tracked in near real-time using the Argos system. Nearly all the birds have been taking a north-easterly route towards southern Africa. As of 22 May several have reached the Benguela Current region off the coasts of Namibia and western South Africa. A few have continued into the Indian Ocean on the Agulhas Bank off South Africa’s Western Cape.

A Black-browed Albatross chick shortly to fledge from Bird Island in 2021 awaits its satellite tracker, photograph by James Crymble

“The population of adult albatross have been affected globally by longline and trawler fishing, with birds becoming trapped by fishing equipment, or swallowing baited hooks and plastic waste. However, bycatch of seabirds has been reduced to low levels around [Bird Island] following the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). Bycatch has also been significantly reduced in South African and Namibian fisheries, due to concerted efforts by national fisheries bodies and BirdLife International. However, elsewhere in the Southern hemisphere, bycatch is still a major threat. Little is known about the travel patterns of juvenile and immature black-browed albatrosses, and ringing recoveries suggest they range more widely than the mature adults. The data from this group of recently fledged albatrosses stands to offer important new insights into the early lives of these prolific travellers” (click here). The Bird Island birds belong to one of 10 Priority Populations for conservation identified by ACAP.

A satellite-tracked juvenile Black-browed Albatross off Cape Town, South Africa; photograph by Estelle Smalberger

Intriguingly, one of the 19 juvenile Black-browed Albatrosses tracked in 2021 from Bird Island was photographed at sea off South Africa on 31 July 2021, with its back-mounted transmitter clearly visible (click here).

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 24 May 2023