Aleks Dodds displays her ‘WAD2020’ banner in front of Wandering Albatross chicks on Bird Island

From Argentina to Antarctica field teams have risen to ACAP’s “Banner Challenge” by making cloth banners and paper posters promoting this year’s inaugural World Albatross Day and then displaying them adjacent to albatross breeding colonies on islands, on fishing vessels at sea, and, in the face of COVID-19 restrictions in other places and ways.

Banners have been photographed on 24 albatross breeding islands.  Nearly all Parties to the Agreement that support breeding albatrosses responded with banners as did the three non-Party countries (Japan, Mexico and the USA) with breeding birds.  In addition, all five field teams of the Albatross Task Force entered the challenge, taking two banners to sea.  The Antarctic Continent was not left out, with a contribution coming from a research station.

A total of 58 images of the displayed banners and posters in an album on ACAP’s Facebook page has allowed viewers to vote for their favourite by ‘liking’.  The results are now in and the winner and the two runners up can be announced.

With 142 “like’ votes the clear winner is Alex Dodds, Zoological Field Assistant on Bird Island, South Georgia/Islas Georgias del Sur*, who ventured out to photograph herself and her banner against a snow-covered backdrop with Vulnerable Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans chicks that she is monitoring (click here).

Emmanuel Mendoza Pérez and Ariana Duarte Canizales display GECI’s World Albatross Day banner on Guadalupe, behind a Laysan Albatross chick close to fledging

The first runner up is the banner displayed on Mexico’s Guadalupe Island where Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis. A late-arriving entry, it has nevertheless proved popular with Facebook followers, receiving 117 likes.  Well done to Emmanuel Mendoza Pérez and Ariana Duarte Canizales of the environmental NGO Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI).

Midway Atoll residents hold a large World Albatross Day banner, photograph by Lauren Pederson

Third in the competition (with 70 likes) is the work of the US Fish & Wildlife Service on Sand Island, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, photographed on World Albatross Day itself on 19 June.

Kath Walker (left) and Graeme Elliott behind an adult non-breeding male Antipodean Albatross - who walked into the frame

And the ACAP’s Information Officer’s personal favourite?  It's the ‘tri-ribbon’ banner long-time albatross researchers Kath Walker and Graeme Elliott displayed on New Zealand’s Antipodes Island, only to be ‘photo-bombed’ by a passing (and globally Endangered) Antipodean Albatross D. antipodensis.  Sadly, the fallout from COVID-19 forced Graeme and Kath to leave the island early but they still managed to fit birds with satellite trackers – and join the Banner Challenge.  For the record their banner came equal fifth among the 58 images

All entrants to the banner challenge will receive an electronic personalized certificate.  The winner and two runners up will in addition receive one of ACAP’s WAD 2020 posters suitable for framing and a coffee-table book on South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion and Prince Edward Islands, home to five species of breeding albatrosses.  Expect delays in mailings due to ACAP’s Information Officer self isolating at home due to the COVID-19 Pandemic!

The results of two other competitions held by ACAP to mark World Albatross Day, the Great Albicake Bake Off and the Colouring-in Competition, will be announced later this month.

With grateful thanks to all who helped raise awareness of the threats facing albatrosses by making and displaying their banners and posters in the field.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 July 2020

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

Last month, Susan Dierker, author and illustrator of Albatross of Kaua’i. The Story of Kaloakulua contacted ACAP Latest News, writing “In celebration of World Albatross Day, I would like to offer a PDF of my book.”  Earlier she had written “We must take responsibility for the impact we have on the natural world, including on the albatrosses of the Hawaiian islands and elsewhere.  World Albatross Day can help raise awareness of what needs to be done”.

Not just albatrosses.  Susan Dierker with another of her children's books

Kaloakulua was the offspring of Kaluahine and Kaluakane, a pair of Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis that bred on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in 2013/14.  The breeding attempt from hatching to fledging was livestreamed via a camera operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

See a list of eight children’s book about albatrosses that have been reviewed by ACAP Latest News here.  Find the free online version of Susan’s book here and also read ALN's review.

You can follow a ‘royalcam’ currently live streaming a Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi nest.

With thanks to Susan Dierker.

Reference:

Dierker, Susan 2014.  Albatross of Kaua’i. The Story of Kaloakulua.  Coloured illustrations.  Hanalei: Done by Dogs Publishing.  Unpaginated [44 pp] + DVD.  Free on line here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 July 2020

Pink-footed Shearwater, photograph by Peter Hodum

At a virtual session last week of Chile’s Council of Ministers for Sustainability led by Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt, the Recovery, Conservation and Management (Recuperación, Conservación y Gestión; RECOGE) Plan for the globally Vulnerable and ACAP-listed Pink-footed Shearwater Ardenna creatopus was approved.  The shearwater is endemic to Chile, breeding only on Santa Clara and Robinson Crusoe Islands in the Juan Fernández Archipelago and on Mocha Island in the Biobío Region.  It is a trans-equatorial migrant reaching Canadian waters outside its breeding season.

“Overexploitation of fishery resources, marine pollution, bycatch, invasive alien species and even light pollution are some of the threats that the Pink-footed Shearwater and other seabirds must face," says Verónica López, project manager at the NGO Oikonos and in charge of leading the plan to conserve the bird.

“The approved RECOGE plan is an administrative and management instrument that allows us to recover, conserve and manage species that have been classified by the Wildlife Classification Regulations of the Ministry of the Environment for their degree of threat.  These plans seek to ensure that conservation processes are undertaken in a participatory manner and that they coordinate the actions of the State, also integrating the vision of the private sector into a common objective” says Charif Tala, Head of the Departamento de Conservación de Especies (Department of Conservation of Species) of the Ministerio del Medio Ambiente (Ministry of the Environment).

The plan for the Pink-footed Shearwater is the first of its kind produced by a non-governmental organization in Chile and consolidates several years of work by Oikonos, along with institutions of the state and the communities of Mocha Island and the Juan Fernández Archipelago. “We have worked for more than six years involving different actors to coordinate specific and concrete measures that allow us to face the threats of this species through an instrument of the State" says Verónica López.  The plan combines efforts to deal with both land and sea threats.  It “has an important marine component, where we have worked to reduce the threats of bycatch in fisheries targeting anchovy and sardine, which are the main food of the shearwater” says Veronica.

“The approval of this plan marks a milestone in efforts to conserve not only the Pink-footed Shearwater, but also the marine and terrestrial environments which it inhabits.  The plan also marks the beginning of a joint work phase with local communities and public and private institutions to seek funding for its implementation.”

Adapted from a Spanish text by Héctor Gutiérrez Guzmán.

Read of earlier progress with the Pink-footed Shearwater RECOGE plan here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 July 2020

Under the international effort of Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) programmnes, expert and action groups, the Crustacean Guide for Predator Studies in the Southern Ocean gathers information from >100 species from 53 families of the most relevant crustaceans in the diet of sub-Antarctic and Antarctic meso- and top predators [including seabirds], including information on distribution, their relevance in predator diets, sizes, availability of allometric equations and practical procedures to differentiate crustacean species within each family.  It is aimed to support scientists to identify crustaceans in diet studies of predators from the Southern Ocean while promoting interdisciplinary research.

[Text from the SCAR Newsletter, June 2020]

The publication’s abstract follows:

“Crustaceans are an important component in the diet of numerous predators of the Southern Ocean (water masses located south of the Subtropical Front).  As identifying crustaceans from food samples using conventional methods is not easy, a crustacean guide is compiled here to aid scientists working on trophic relationships within the Southern Ocean.  Having the needs of the scientists in mind, we gathered information from >100 species from 53 families of the most relevant crustaceans in the diet of subantarctic and Antarctic meso- and top predators, including information on distribution, their relevance in predator diets, sizes, availability of allometric equations and practical procedures to differentiate crustacean species within each family.  Additional information of bibliography is added if families possess more that the species mentioned in this book.  It is noted that a large number of species still has no allometric equations and the taxonomic status has (remains) to be clarified for some species (one or various species).”

Reference:

Xavier, J.C., Cherel, Y., Boxshall, G., Brandt, A., Coffer, T., Forman, J., Havermans, C., Jażdżewska, A.M., Kouwenberg, K., Schiaparelli, S., Schnabel, K., Siegel, V., Tarling, G.A., Thatje, S., Ward, P. & Gutt, J.(2020.  Crustacean Guide for Predator Studies in the Southern Ocean.  Cambridge, UK.  Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.  253 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 02 July 2020