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At the 16th Meeting of the Scientific Council (SC16) of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) to be held from 28-30 June 2010 in Bonn, Germany, consideration will be given to the taxonomic status of albatrosses and petrels listed on the convention appendices under Item 15.4 of the meeting agenda.  All ACAP-listed species are included on either or both Appendices I and II of the CMS.

To aid in its consideration, the Scientific Council will take note of a paper (Doc. 17) prepared and submitted by the Taxonomic Working Group of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  The paper sets out in detail the procedure followed by ACAP to come to taxonomic decisions.  It recommends that the Scientific Council of the CMS:

• recognises that ACAP has established a thorough, robust, transparent and defensible taxonomic process for addressing the complex and sometimes controversial issues associated with the taxonomy of albatrosses and some petrels;
• recognises ACAP as the appropriate taxonomic authority for albatrosses and petrels;
• and adopts the taxonomy used by ACAP.
  
  

SC16 will also discuss impacts of bycatch on migratory species and best-practice mitigation measures.  In an Information Paper (Inf. 11.4) ACAP through the Convenor of its Seabird Bycatch Working Group, Barry Baker (who is also the CMS Scientific Counsellor on Bycatch) provides requested information on the identification of emerging and best-practice bycatch mitigation techniques, as they relate to species listed under the ACAP Agreement.

Information on mitigation measures relevant to seabirds has also been submitted to SC16 by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC).

Click here for an earlier ACAP news item on the CMS meeting.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 June 2010