Jaimie Cleeland colour bands a breeding Tristan Albatross on Gough Island

To date, 813 sponsors have funded 2260 hectares towards the eradication of Marion Island’s albatross-killing mice with donations exceeding two and a quarter million South African Rands.  Whereas this represents a larger area than that of New Zealand’s Antipodes, the most recent sub-Antarctic island to be rid of its introduced mice, at some 30 000 ha Marion will be the largest island by far where a mouse eradication will be attempted in a single operation.  So there’s a long way still to go before the projected 2023 eradication will be fully funded!

The majority of the sponsorships has come from within South Africa.  However, a so far small but a growing number has come from outside the country, showing that the eradication of the island’s mice and the plight of its embattled albatrosses and petrels has struck a chord worldwide.  Among this international fraternity are researchers and conservationists who have worked with albatrosses and their petrel kin.  The Mouse-Free Marion Project is most grateful for their support and reached out to seven of these generous people to learn more about what motivated them to donate.

Christine Bogle with World Albatross Day 2020 posters

Christine Bogle, a New Zealander currently based in Australia, is the ACAP Executive Secretary.  She wrote in an ACAP media release last year: “The inaugural World Albatross Day comes at a time when the world has been turned upside down by a global pandemic.  I hope this crisis reminds us how much we must treasure the natural environment of which we are custodians. To paraphrase the words of Sir Geoffrey Palmer (former New Zealand Prime Minister), who in May 1990 was speaking about whales, if we allow albatrosses to become extinct, how can we imagine ourselves capable of solving the many other environmental problems the world faces?”

Nigel Brothers releases a Critically Endangered Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata bearing a satellite tramsmitter at sea

“Nobody wants to kill a magnificent 50-year-old albatross and yet hundreds are killed every day just to put fish on your plate” is the view of Australian Nigel Brothers, Seabird Consultant with Humane Society International who has worked with seabirds and their introduced (but now eradicated) predators on Macquarie Island.  He currently serves as an expert member on ACAP’s Seabird Bycatch Working Group.  Read more about Nigel’s support of the MFM Project here.

 Jaimie Cleeland (photograph at top) conducted her PhD research on Macquarie Island’s albatrosses ovrer 2011 to 2014, followed by a year on Gough Island working with the Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena.  Currently with the Australian Antarctic Division, she writes: “Albatrosses are long lived, have a prolonged juvenile stage, breed infrequently and have strong pair bonds which they can maintain for life.  This slow life cycle makes them vulnerable to threats such as industrial fishing, invasive predators and marine pollution”.

Beth Flint poses with a model of Wisdom, the Laysan Albatross, the world’s oldest known wild bird

Elizabeth (Beth) Flint is a Supervisory Wildlife Biologist with Marine National Monuments in the Pacific, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S.A.  Based on the Hawaiian island of Oahu she writes “While we share similar life spans and the spatial scales of our activities, ranging over vast areas of the globe, albatrosses have lived on earth in their current form tens of millions of years longer than Homo sapiens without disrupting or degrading their own habitats”.

Stephanie Prince with a Wandering Albatross chick on Bird Island

Stephanie Prince (née Winnard) is BirdLife International’s Marine Programme Manager, based at the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).  Previously, she conducted research on the albatrosses of Bird Island in the South Atlantic with the British Antarctic Survey.  She says she was motivated to “sponsor a hectare” by albatrosses being such amazing creatures that are sadly facing many threats to their existence.

Chris Robertson (centre) with Hannahrose Nevins, American Bird Conservancy and the ACAP Information Officer at an ACAP reception in Wellington, New Zealand in 2017

Chris Robertson QSM*, a now-retired New Zealander biologist, is a doyen of albatross research, well known to marine ornithologists.  He writes “After more than 50 years working with the albatross kingdom in the field, upon the autopsy table, and in more than 70 museum collections, I am continually surprised at the steady advances in our understanding of the species uniqueness and behaviour of these pre-eminent avian marine travellers and predators.  I have been privileged to assist in New Zealand’s improving fisheries bycatch mitigation and successful introduced mammal removals from islands.  All albatross islands are the necessary breeding places which will ensure their survival.  Any project which cleans their habitat and reduces their mortality on land or at sea, deserves all our unconditional support”.

*Queen's Service Medal

Mark Tasker at an international meeting

“Albatrosses are one of the pinnacles of evolution in harnessing the winds to search much of the world’s oceans for food.  Sadly, human activities are putting them at risk of extinction” is the considered view of Mark Tasker, retired Head of Marine Advice, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, United Kingdom; past Chair and Vice Chair of ACAP’s Advisory Committee; and currently Convenor of the ACAP Taxonomy Working Group.  Read about Mark’s generous 25-ha sponsorship here.

To sponsor your own hectare (or more) click here.

NOTE:  Post adapted from the Marion-Free Project Website with permission.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 July 2021

Following the cancellation of the in-attendance event due the COVID pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding travel and access to Australia, registration is now open for the virtual Third World Seabird Conference (vWSC3) to be held over 4 - 8 October 2021.  Further information regarding the schedule and additional submission opportunities will be announced in the next few weeks.  Register before the early bird deadline of 13 September or by 27 September to secure the lowest rates (range US$10-150).  More information regarding the rates and payment details can be found here.

Registration will cover:

Access to four full days of conference sessions
Complimentary access to pre-conference workshops on the first day (pre-registration is required)
Two dedicated virtual poster and exhibitor sessions
Plenary sessions, multiple parallel sessions and networking opportunities
An online programme and abstract book
The opportunity to network and liaise with research colleagues and leading international scientists.

“We're looking forward to a virtual event that is inclusive, diverse, and representative of the global nature of seabirds and have reduced registration rates to encourage participation by seabird researchers from around the world.”

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 July 2021

A Black-footed Albatross Phoebastria nigripes approaches a floating balloon, photograph by Rich Stallcup

ACAP Latest News has reported on numerous times of albatrosses and petrels ingesting or becoming entangled by helium-filled balloons that had been released in the open air and subsequently returned to earth or sea after bursting (click here).  Unless successfully treated by rehabilitation centres it seems many of the affected birds will have succumbed.   Around the world various NGOs and social media groups have been working assiduously to persuade local, regional or national authorities to ban, or at least limit, the intentional outdoor release of lighter-than-air balloons, with it is fair to say, limited results (for example Balloons Blow and Save Queensland from Balloons).

Significant news then that on 30 June the State of Hawaii banned (as from 1 January 2023, 18 months away) the intentional release of all balloons outside (with the exceptions of hot air, meteorological and research balloons).  “Sea turtles, albatrosses and other marine life that eat squid and jellyfish can mistake balloons in the ocean for food.  This is due to the tentacle like appearance of the plastic ribbons and the balloons which undergo brittle fracture in the air when they burst.  When ingested, balloons become sticky and gooey and are impossible for an animal or bird to move through their digestive system.  Blockages of the gastro-intestinal tract caused by balloons leads the animal or bird to starve to death.  The plastic ribbons attached to balloons are also a danger as they can cause injury or death to marine life that become entangled in them or ingest them” (click here).

It remains to be seen whether Hawaii’s lead will be copied by other states in the USA, or in other parts of the world where balloons have been reported leading to the death of albatrosses and petrels.  However, it seems the pressure groups will continue to work towards more bans.

Read more on Hawaii’s action here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 July 2021

Tristan Albatross, artwork by Maureen Rousseau, from a photograph by Michelle Risi

The follows news item is taken in its entirety from BirdLife International’s website.  It has been written by Oli Yates, Head of BirdLife’s Marine Programme.

“With a new protected area and a campaign to remove invasive mice, there have been many recent advances in the conservation of this Critically Endangered albatross. But our work isn’t over yet. Discover the measures in place to safeguard the species – and the gaps that still need to be filled.

The Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena (Critically Endangered) is one of the great albatrosses, ranging widely across the South Atlantic and into the Indian Ocean. These birds feed on fish and squid in surface waters, returning to their nest sites every second year where eggs are laid in January, hatch in March-April and fledge eight to nine months later from around November.

Almost the entire global population of Tristan Albatross nest at Gough Island, an incredibly remote island in the middle of the South Atlantic – the most southerly of the Tristan da Cunha island group, on the very edge of the strong westerly winds known as the ‘roaring forties’. This UNESCO Natural World Heritage site is perfectly placed, if you’re an albatross, with year-round windy conditions, highly productive waters of the Tristan da Cunha Exclusive Economic Zone within immediate reach, and roughly equidistant between the continental shelves of South America and southern Africa.  

The small community at Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, the settlement at Tristan da Cunha,  have recently made a huge contribution to marine conservation by designating a Marine Conservation Zone across almost 700,000 km² of their Exclusive Economic Zone. This ‘no-take zone’ excludes fishing in most areas, with low-impact sustainable fishing permitted around the islands and seamounts to ensure the islanders can maintain economic and food security. The people of Tristan da Cunha have given the world one the biggest sanctuaries for wildlife.

Gough Island would be the perfect habitat, but for the house mice which were accidentally introduced decades ago by visiting ships. Over time, the mice learned to exploit the young chicks of albatrosses and petrels, which have no natural defence against the mammalian threat. The mice are now estimated to account for the loss of over two million seabird eggs and chicks each year. This ghastly reality has ravaged the Tristan Albatross population, and now recent evidence shows the killer mice are able to devour the adult birds too. An incredible project is underway to eradicate these non-native mice from the island - one of the world's most challenging island restoration projects – which would restore the fortunes of the island's birds.

Increased protection for this Critically Endangered species is coming on in leaps and bounds at the breeding site and its surrounding waters. This improved protection is also reinforced by vital improvements in fishery management in the Benguela Current, where seabird deaths in the Namibian demersal longline fishery have been reduced by 98%, and in the South Africa hake trawl fishery by 90%. That equates to over 30,000 birds saved every year.

Despite these stunning advances, observers on Asian distant water tuna fishing vessels continue to report accidental ‘bycatch’ of Tristan Albatrosses in areas managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas on the High Seas, outside the Tristan Marine Protected Zone.

The RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) runs a monitoring programme for Tristan Albatrosses on Gough Island. Fledgling and adult Tristan Albatrosses receive unique leg rings, so that the population can be monitored and understood over time. In the last year three rings from adult Tristan Albatrosses have been recovered by fisheries observers, indicating fishing vessels are likely not using the seabird bycatch prevention measures they are required to deploy. When used correctly, the mitigation measures (weighting the fishing lines, setting them at night and adding and brightly-coloured ‘bird-scaring lines’), are highly effective at reducing bycatch to negligible levels.

The around 95% of distant water fishing vessels do not carry observers. In order to enforce mandatory conservation measures, we need much stronger monitoring, a greater number of observers and the use of electronic monitoring technology. These remain key pieces of the puzzle to ensure the survival of these magnificent birds.”

With thanks to Jessica Law and Oli Yates.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 July 2021