A bird-scaring line keeps seabirds at bay, photograph by Amanda Gladics

The UK’s Royal Society for Bird Protection (RSPB) hosts the BirdLife International Marine Programme, with a particular emphasis on stopping albatross declines through implementing practical solutions to reduce bycatch in longline and trawl fisheries and protecting the most important sites for seabirds globally.

“We are looking for a visionary and inspiring marine specialist to head up the Birdlife International Marine Programme, leading the RSPB Global Seas programme, overseeing the Marine Programme Regional Co-ordinators in BirdLife International Partners across the world and co-ordinating the marine policy and scientific work at the BirdLife International Secretariat.

The overall aims of the Marine Programme are to improve the conservation status of the world's seabirds through the adoption of bycatch mitigation measures in longline and trawl fisheries, to identify bycatch mitigation measures in gillnet fisheries; and to delineate and protect marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas.  The successful candidate will have extensive experience of seabirds and marine issues and excellent skills in facilitation and the development and co-ordination of a dispersed team."

Closing date: 12 August 2020; applications to Irene Sabiniarz at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Read more here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 August 2020

Joe Naylor with his winning cake

A total of 72 entries was received for the Great Albicake Bake Off in aid of celebrating World Albatross Day in June.  Winners and Runners up from Facebook likes and from the three judges have now been posted to ACAP Latest News - but there is one special cake still to feature.

Joe Naylor, who lives in Chepstow on the UK's Welsh border, was chosen by the judges as an equal third place in the Morphological Accuracy category, along with two other entrants.  What is special about his cake is that Joe is 10 years old and his entry was competing with those of 71 other cakes, all but one or two made by adults.

“Petey the Albatross”

Images of Joe’s cake were submitted by his mother Alexia Naylor who also sent the following from her son: “Petey is a Black-browed Albatross who lives in Chile with his mate Mollie and their chick Lilly.  Lilly is a newly hatched albatross, so she is still very fluffy.  Mice have been eating the chicks whilst the adults are doing other things, like fishing and preening.  My cake is when the mice are gone and the albatross make a comeback.  First I made one of my classic sponges and added some turquoise buttercream around the edges.  Next I rolled out a circle of blue icing and put it to the side whilst I made the albatross. After I had made the albatross I put it all on the cake and cut out some albatross silhouettes and stuck them on the cake.”

Alexia writes that her son bakes his sponge cakes entirely independently.  She helped Joe research albatrosses online and design the cake on Powerpoint and his his grandmother, Carolyn Naylor gave guidance on making icing and cutting out shapes.

Petey, Mollie and Lilly by Emily Naylor

Joe’s sister Emily (aged seven) drew the albatross family, Petey, Mollie and Lilly.  Joe and Emily have been home-schooled since March due to COVID-19  and cooking has been part of their life-skills learning.  Joe has now moved onto baking bread with Zoom lessons from his school teacher.

Joe’s cake “was very tasty!”

Joe’s Uncle Adam won no less than two of the five thematic categories and was overall co-winner as decided by the judges and received a third place by Facebook likes for his “Gough in Miniature” cake.  He is a Veterinary Surgeon with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and a team member of the Gough Island Restoration Programme, quarantining with Joe’s family after the COVID-19-induced cancellation of this year’s effort to eradicate the island’s mice (and telling his nephew all about the island's albatrosses).  Adam says Joe’s mother is also an excellent baker.  It seems making award-winning cakes runs deep in the extended Naylor family!

With thanks to Adam Naylor and Alexia Naylor.  The photo of Joe with his cake is posted with parental permission.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 August 2020

Masked and socially distanced.  Protea Heights Academy Learners Kara Robberts and Angelique Beck with their ACAP World Albatross Day poster prizes depicting Tristan Albatrosses

Back in March the ACAP Information Officer met with an old sub-Antarctic island colleague, Mariëtte Wheeler, to discuss plans to get school learners involved in marking World Albatross Day in South Africa.  Mariëtte gained her PhD at sub-Antarctic Marion Island studying the effects of human disturbance on its breeding seabirds, including albatrosses, and seals.  She is now the Life Sciences Educator at Protea Heights Academy - a Maths, Science and Technology senior school within the greater Cape Town area.  The academy is one of only six nodal schools in the Western Cape to have commenced teaching marine science as a subject in 2020, initiated by and with the collaboration of Cape Town’s Two Oceans Aquarium; Mariëtte is the subject head.

Back to school before COVID-19!  ACAP’s Information Officer meets with Mariëtte Wheeler in her Life Sciences classroom at Protea Heights Academy

Photograph by Grade 12 learner Koketso Maruma

Unfortunately closure of all South African schools as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic brought their plans to get the almost 900 learners of the school involved with ‘WAD2021’ with lectures and demonstrations in the school hall to a halt.

Mariëtte was inspired by the Great Albicake Bake Off and Colouring-in competitions held by ACAP to help raise awareness of the need for albatross conservation. Because she was still teaching her classes online throughout lockdown, she decided to make her learners more aware of the need for conserving albatrosses through a creative class competition.  Learners were asked to bake, draw, paint or make something creative “as long as there was at least one albatross included”.  The 17 participating learners used what they had available at their homes and submitted images and photographs of their creativity online.  Marienne de Villiers (CapeNature and Mariette’s PhD promoter) and Ria Olivier (Antarctic Legacy of South Africa) along with the ACAP Information Officer acted as independent judges of the creations.  The learners were also asked to vote for their favourites.  Prizes were then awarded in each category.  ACAP sponsored World Albatross Day posters for the winners and the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa sponsored a book on the natural history of Gough Island for each learner who entered and a colour A5-print of the learner’s image.  In addition, Mariëtte printed certificates of participation for each learner.

Some of the marine science learners from Protea Heights Academy with their artworks

Albatross Creative Class Competition winning artworks

The following were the winners in each category:

Crafts – Aaisha Ismail; Computer drawing – Antonio Burger; Class vote – Aviwe Hali; Pencil/colour-in drawing (two winners as the category with the most entries) – Kayla Labuschagne  & Kara Robberts; Baking – Penelope Mvinjelwa; Painting – Angelique Beck.

Angelique Beck with her winning painting and a WAD2020 poster of Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses on Gough Island, photographed and designed by Michelle Risi

Kara Robberts with her winning drawing next to a WAD2020 poster by Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature artist, Annie Shoemaker-Magdaleno

Mariëtte Wheeler, Protea Heights Academy, Cape Town, South Africa, 30 July 2020

Hiʻipoi with a parent

Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis are in the early stages of establishing a new breeding colony at Kahuku Point/Kalaeokaunaʻoa on the north coast of the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu.  After years of failed breeding attempts three chicks fledged from six eggs laid in the 2018/19 season, a success attributed to control of introduced mammalian predators and community outreach.  In the current 2019/20 season the breeding population increased to nine pairs, all which laid eggs.  Of these, five pairs abandoned their eggs, perhaps as a result of being disturbed.  One of these was a female-female pair which presumably laid infertile egg(s).  Of the remaining four eggs, one chick died while hatching and three hatched successfully.

The colony is looked after by the North Shore Community Land Trust with help from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Pacific Islands Coastal Program.  The Trust has recently announced via its Facebook page that the three chicks all fledged this month. Before their departure the chicks were both metal and colour banded.  Children at the North Shore’s Hauʻula Elementary School have named the three fledglings Hiʻipoi ("to cherish and protect"), Kailani ("heavenly sea") and Pākaha ("Curious").

Kailani

Pākaha, photographs by Sheldon Plentovich

Read more about the Laysan Albatrosses at Kahuku Point/Kalaeokaunaʻoa here.

The North Shore Community Land Trust is a supporter of World Albatross Day.  With thanks to the Trust's Alice Terry and Sheldon Plentovich of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Pacific Islands Coastal Program for information and use of photographs..

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 July 2020, updated 31 July 2020