Assessing bycatch of Black-footed Albatrosses using genetics

Black-footed Albatross by Colleen Laird‎ of Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day, 19 June 2020

Jessie Beck (Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington, USA) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Biological Conservation on quantifying bycatch by US Fisheries of Near Threatened Black-footed Albatrosses Phoebastria nigripes using genetic markers.

The paper’s highlights (unusually there is no abstract) follow:

Characterizing the demographic impact of seabird bycatch is challenging.

Black-footed albatross are [sic] accidentally caught in fisheries throughout the Pacific Ocean.

U.S.fisheries collect seabird bycatch [data] that can be analyzed for population-of-origin.

We identify disproportionate bycatch from specific breeding colonies.

Genetic assignment using targeted genetic markers can tease apart populations in species with low genetic differentiation.

jReference:

Beck, J.N., Baetscher, D.S., Tobin, C., Edwards, S.V., Yung Wa Sin, S., Fitzgerald, S., Tuttle, V.J., Peschon, J. & Larson, W.A. 2025.  Quantifying impacts of seabird bycatch using genetic assignment: a case study of black-footed albatross in U.S. fisheries.  Biological Conservation 303. 110965.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels,10 March 2025