Archived News

In April this year the Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater of the Mediterranean Sea was listed within the Albatross and Petrel Agreement following its nomination by Spain (click here).  During the last meeting of ACAP's Advisory Committee, held in Ecuador in 2011, Chile announced it would work towards nominating its own endemic shearwater, the Vulnerable Pink-footed P. creatopus, to the Agreement.

This month BirdLife International and the World Conservation Union have released their 2012 update to the IUCN Red List of threatened birds of the World.  BirdLife currently recognizes 22 species of shearwaters, of which eight have been accorded a threatened status in this year's list (click here).  These eight species include the Yelkouan Shearwater P. yelkouan, endemic as is the Balearic to the Mediterranean, which has now been up-listed from Near Threatened to Vulnerable.

Yelkouan Shearwater.  Photograph by Matthew Borg Cardona

"This species has been uplisted to Vulnerable as it is estimated to be undergoing a rapid population decline, caused by extremely low breeding success and adult survival owing to fisheries bycatch and predation by introduced mammals.  Declines have probably been on-going for many years, and are projected to continue.  The species may be declining more rapidly than this and should this be confirmed, the species will warrant uplisting to a higher threat category".

The Yelkouan Shearwater is under study by several Mediterranean countries, including in Malta (which holds about 10% of the global population) as part of the EU LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project (click here).

Read  previous coverage on the Yelkouan Shearwater in ACAP Latest News.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 June 2011