World Albatross Day on Gough Island with a Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross, photograph and poster design by Michelle Risi

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the United Kingdom’s BirdLife partner, created an online story map, entitled “Turning the Tide for the Albatross’, for World Albatross Day on 19 June.

The story map concentrates on the Albatross Task Force that works to reduce fishery mortality in five South American and southern African countries, and on the Gough Island Restoration Programme which aims to eradicate the introduced House Mice on the island.  The eradication is now set for next year, following an enforced delay caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic.

At-sea tracking of five species of albatrosses in the South Atlantic from Bird and Gough Islands is also featured.  The story map is illustrated with evocative photos and video clips along with informative maps.

With thanks to Nina da Rocha, Albatross Task Force Project Officer and Michelle Risi, Field Researcher, Gough Island Restoration Programme.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 July 2020+

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