Saving seabirds: ACAP announces eight awards from its 2014 round of grant opportunities

The results of the latest round of grant opportunities made by ACAP have now been announced.  Funding of approximately AUD 110 000 was available for allocation from the Advisory Committee (AC) Work Programme budget for 2013-14, with a maximum of AUD 20 000 available to be granted per individual project (click here).

Following consideration by the AC’s Grants Subcommittee a total of AUD 107 666 was awarded to eight projects chosen out of 21 applications received from 10 countries.  The successful applications are listed below.

Assessing the conservation status of the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross on Gough Island, Tristan da Cunha; Juliet Vickery, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK; AUD 10 695

Comparative trials of Lumo Leads and traditional line weighting in the Brazilian pelagic longline fishery; Tatiana Neves, Projeto Albatroz, Brazil; AUD 10 000

A population estimate of White-chinned Petrel at Disappointment Island, Auckland Islands, New Zealand; David Thompson, NIWA, New Zealand; AUD 16 000

Reducir la mortalidad incidental de albatros y petreles en pesquerías de arrastre en el Mar Argentino. Un enfoque integrado para la conservación de especies amenazadas (Reducing incidental mortality of albatrosses and petrels in trawl fisheries in the Argentine Sea.  A comprehensive approach for the conservation of threatened species); Guillermo Cañete, Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina, Argentina; AUD 10 000

Ensayo de medidas de mitigación para la reducción de capturas accidentales de aves marinas en los palangreros demersales del Mediterráneo (Trial of mitigation measures to reduce seabird bycatch in demersal longliners of the Mediterranean Sea); Jacob González-Solís, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; AUD 19 985

Multi-colony tracking of nonbreeding Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris from the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas): identifying key wintering areas and zones of overlap with fisheries; April Hedd, Canada; AUD 12 500

Establishing capacity in South America to build knowledge on albatross and petrel health and prevent disease introduction; Marcela Uhart & Flavio Quintana, University of California, Davis, USA & Centro Nacional Patagónico, CONICET, Argentina; AUD 20 000

Identificación de zonas de alimentación de la Pardela Balear en el NE Atlántico: una aproximación multidiscliplinar (Identification of Balearic Shearwater's foraging ranges in the NE Atlantic: a multidisciplinary approach); Maite Louzao Arsuaga, Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Spain; AUD 8486

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross chick and parent on Gough Island

Photograph by Kalinka Rexer-Huber

The next call for grant applications is expected to be made after the Eighth Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee, to be held in September this year and before the Fifth Session of the Meeting of Parties, due to be held in 2015.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 March 2014