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In a significant development for the Critically Endangered Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata, Peru, a Party to ACAP, has established a network of coastal reserves to protect its famous "guano islands" and their surrounding waters.

The "Reserva Nacional Sistema de Islas, Islotes y Puntas Guaneras" (literally the Guano Island, Islet and Peninsula National Reserve System) was established by Decree of Alan García Pérez, Presidente Constitucional de la República (Decreto Supremo No. 024-2009-MINAM).

The decree adds 22 guano islands and islets and 11 mainland peninsulas (with a total area of 140 833 ha) and their adjacent waters out to two nautical miles along Peru's Pacific coast to the country's national system of protected areas.  The new guano islands reserve network supports breeding colonies of up to millions of seabirds, including the Endangered Peruvian Diving Petrel Pelecanoides garnotii, (a potential ACAP candidate species, click here) and the Vulnerable Humboldt Penguin Spheniscus humboldti.

In addition, the productive inshore upwelling waters off Peru, some of which will now be protected within the new reserve system, support a large part of the non-breeding population of the ACAP-listed Waved Albatross, which travels from its breeding grounds in the Ecuadorian Galápagos Islands to the coasts of Ecuador and northern Peru.

Regulations for fishing activities within the marine component of the new reserve network are still to be developed within a comprehensive management plan, but may extend to prohibitions or controls over the use of nets, longlines and hand-held hooks and lines.  Waved Albatrosses are at risk from these fisheries, both from accidental bycatch and their intentional capture for human consumption.

For recent reports on the problem of fishery-induced mortality of Waved Albatrosses in Peruvian waters (and comprehensive reference lists) visit the following:

http://www.apeco.org.pe/web/pdfs/reportealbatros.pdf

http://www.int-res.com/articles/esr2008/5/n005p185.pdf

http://www.iattc.org/PDFFiles2/WAAL-document-IATTC-May-2009-v3.pdf

See also:

Ecuador - Peru - ACAP Advisory Committee 2008.  Plan of Action for the Waved Albatross (Phoebastria irrorata).  ACAP AC4 Doc. 50 rev. 4.  30 pp.

Click here to access the ACAP Species Assessment for the Waved Albatross.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, with Jessica Hardesty, American Bird Conservancy, Kate Huyvaert, Colorado State University and Patricia Majluf, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia.  26 January 2010.