UPDATE:  The ACAP Secretariat and Advisory Committee Chair are consulting with ACAP Parties about the way forward as regards AC12 in relation to COVID-19.  At this stage, we are considering deferring the Advisory Committee and associated Working Group meetings.

Ecuador's endemic Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata is Critically Endangered, photograph by Laurie Smaglick Johnson

 The Twelfth Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee (AC12) will be held from Monday 31 August to Friday 4 September 2020, in the Mantahost Hotel, Manta, Ecuador.  Meetings of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group and the Population and Conservation Status Working Group will precede AC12 at the same venue: SBWG10 from Monday 24 to Thursday 27 August, and PaCSWG6 from Thursday 27 to Friday 28 August.  As decided by AC11, a joint SBWG10/PACSWG6 will be held on the morning of Thursday 27 August to discuss cross-cutting issues.  A Heads of Delegation meeting will be convened on Sunday 30 August in the late afternoon/evening.

Information on deadlines for submission and distribution of meeting documents are given in Circular 1, available in ACAP’s three official languages of English, French and Spanish.  Information is also given in the circular on applications for observer status by international and non-international bodies.

A block booking for delegates has been made at the Mantahost Hotel; more details in the first circular.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 January 2020, updated 01 April 2020

Tristan Albatross pair on Gough Island, artwork by Virginia Potter Vredeveld from a photograph by Michelle Risi 

Susana Requena (RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sandy, UK) and colleagues have published in the journal Animal Conservation on identifying marine areas used by seabird and seal predators in the South Atlantic.  Five ACAP-listed seabirds were tracked: Atlantic Yellow-nosed Thalassarche chlororhynchos, Sooty Phoebetria fusca and Tristan Diomedea dabbenena Albatrosses and Grey Procellaria cinerea and Spectacled P. conspicillata Petrels.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Remote oceanic islands harbour unique biodiversity, especially of species that rely on the marine trophic resources around their breeding islands.  Identifying marine areas used by such species is essential to manage and limit processes that threaten these species.  The Tristan da Cunha territory in the South Atlantic Ocean hosts several endemic and globally threatened seabirds, and pinnipeds; how they use the waters surrounding the islands must be considered when planning commercial activities.  To inform marine management in the Tristan da Cunha Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), we identified statistically significant areas of concentrated activity by collating animal tracking data from nine seabirds and one marine mammal.  We first calculated the time that breeding adults of the tracked species spent in 10 × 10 km cells within the EEZ, for each of four seasons to account for temporal variability in space use.  By applying a spatial aggregation statistic over these grids for each season, we detected areas that are used more than expected by chance.  Most of the activity hotspots were either within 100 km of breeding colonies or were associated with seamounts, being spatially constant across several seasons.  Our simple and effective approach highlights important areas for pelagic biodiversity that will benefit conservation planning and marine management strategies.”

With thanks to Janine Dunlop, Niven Librarian, FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town.

Reference:

Requena, S., Oppel, S., Bond, A.L., Hall, A., Cleeland, J., Crawford, R.J.M., Davies, D., Dilley, B.J., Makhado, A., Ratcliffe, N., Reid, T.A., Ronconi, R.A., Schofield, A., Steinfurth, A., Wege, M., Bester, M.[N.] & Ryan, P.G. 2020.  Marine hotspots of activity inform protection of a threatened community of pelagic species in a large oceanic jurisdiction.  Animal Conservation doi.org/10.1111/acv.12572.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 April 2020

Taiki Terajima (left) and Teru Yuta pose with their ‘WAD2020’ banner behind a Black-footed Albatross chick on Mukojima

Teru Yuta, a Researcher in the Division of Avian Conservation of Japan’s Yamashina Institute for Ornithology leads on the conservation and monitoring of an incipient colony of globally Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus on Mukojima in the Ogasawara Islands.  Over five years from 2008 to 2012 70 Short-tailed Albatross chicks were translocated from Torishima – the species’ main breeding site - to Mukojima, where they were hand fed until 69 of them fledged.  The aim was to create a new colony on an island not at risk to volcanic activity, as is Torishima (click here).

Teru has written to ACAP Latest News summarizing Short-tailed Albatross activity on Mukojima over the last decade:

“From 2011 some of the translocated Short-tailed Albatrosses started to come back to Mukojima.  One pair, of which the male was translocated, started to breed in 2013 but failed over three years.   From 2016 to 2020, this pair bred successfully and fledged a chick for five years in a row.  From 2019 a bird that fledged in 2016 was observed back on Mukojima.  A second pair has laid eggs in the last three years (2018-2020), but they have not hatched.  The translocated individuals are seen more on Torishima.  There are some new birds coming from Torishima, but more seen on Mukojima now are from Senkaku Islands.”

Teru continues to express cautious optimism of a new colony becoming established: “Although the number of the translocated birds seen back on Mukojima has been decreasing in the last few years, and there has been only one pair successfully breeding, the second generation is starting to come back, and it seems that it is very slowly, step by step, getting closer to establishing a new colony.  I am hoping for the second-generation individuals to start breeding soon”.  A hope shared by ACAP Latest News!

Read more of the translocation project here.

While conducting field work at the island’s translocation site Teru and colleagues were able to display and photograph a banner in support of this year’s inaugural World Albatross Day (“WAD2020’) with chicks of the three Northern Pacific albatrosses that breed on Mukojima.  This adds the Short-tailed as a new species of albatross photographed with a banner to those already featured in ACAP Latest News.

Taiki Terajima (left) and Teru Yuta pose with their ‘WAD2020’ behind a pair of Short-tailed Albatross decoys on Mukojima ...

... with a Laysan Albatross chick ...

Photographs by Toshio Minami

... and with a Short-tailed Albatross chick.

With thanks to Teru Yuta, Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, Japan.

Reference:

Deguchi, T., Sato, F., Eda, M., Izumi, H., Suzuki , H., Suryan, R.M., Lance, E.W., Hasegawa, H. & Ozaki, K. 2016  Translocation and hand-rearing result in short-tailed albatrosses returning to breed in the Ogasawara Islands 80 years after extirpation.  Animal Conservation doi:10.1111/acv.12322.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 31 March 2020

The BirdLife national partner in Spain is known as SEO/BirdLife.  Following an approach by ACAP Latest News the environmental NGO has offered its support to this year’s inaugural World Albatross Day (‘WAD2020’) on 19 June, joining seven other BirdLife partners around the world.

nFounded in 1954 and currently with over 16 000 members and a staff of over 80, SEO/BirdLife works towards the conservation of birds and biodiversity by conducting scientific studies, disseminating knowledge, engaging in policy, performing activities related to international cooperation and developing environmental programmes with volunteers.  Seabirds and the marine environment are among the priorities of the organization (click here).

 Pep holds a Balearic Shearwater

Pep Arcos, head of SEO’s Marine Programme, has written to ACAP Latest News: “Albatrosses are iconic birds that remind us in Spain of the far distant and mysterious region of the Southern Ocean.  However, some of their cousins do occur in our own waters, such as the endemic and Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus, listed as an ACAP species following a proposal from Spain that was supported by SEO/BirdLife.  It is among SEO/BirdLife’s priorities to help save these birds from extinction, and World Albatross Day is an ideal way of recalling all of them, and to let people know about their value and the threats they face”.

“Los albatros son aves icónicas que, a los que vivimos en España, nos hacen pensar en las remotas y misteriosas aguas de los mares del sur.  Pero nuestras aguas también acogen a algunos de su ‘primos’, como la críticamente amenazada pardela balear Puffinus mauretanicus, que entró en la lista de especies prioritarias de ACAP a propuesta de España y con apoyo de SEO/BirdLife.  Salvar de la extinción a todas estas aves es una de las prioridades de SEO/BirdLife, y el Día Mundial de los Albatros nos brinda la oportunidad de darles visibilidad ante el gran público, y concienciarle acerca de sus amenazas.”     

 SEO/BirdLife also has a working group on seabirds, the Grupo Ibérico de Aves Marinas (Iberian Marine Bird Group, GIAM), formed by amateurs and professionals interested in seabirds and their habitats, that engage in coordinated actions of monitoring and conservation, in liaison with the Marine Programme and other areas of the organization.  GIAM conducts campaigns focused on seabirds at different times depending on the threats and needs that arise.

SEO/BirdLife Chief Executive Officer, Asunción Ruiz, coordinated SEO’s work on a EU-funded LIFE project devoted to the Balearic Shearwater (1998-2001), and has written a book on the species (Ruiz & Martí 2004 La pardela balear).  She writes to ACAP Latest News:

“Los albatros son verdaderas joyas del medio marino, y desde SEO/BirdLife no dudamos en sumarnos a apoyar un Día Mundial para estas emblemáticas aves. Un día que también dará visibilidad a nuestro ‘albatros particular’, la pardela balear, un diamante en bruto de nuestras aguas por cuya conservación trabajamos desde hace ya muchos años, un tesoro marino que no podemos permitir que vuele hacia la extinción”. 

"Albatrossess are true jewels of the marine environment, and we at SEO/BirdLife did not hesitate to join a World Day initiative for these iconic birds; I hope this will also bring visibility to a rough diamond of our own seas, our ‘particular albatross’, the Balearic shearwater, a species that has been on the focus of our conservation work for years, a marine treasure that we cannot let fly towards extinction.”

Spain is one of the first of the 13 ACAP Parties, following its ratification of the Agreement in August 2003.  It hosted the Fifth Session of the Meeting of the Parties (MoP5) in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in May 2015 when Balearic Shearwater was listed in the Agreement.  SEO/BirdLife’s ‘Pep’ Arcos attended the meeting as an observer, representing BirdLife International.  He is also a member of ACAP’s Population and Conservation Status Working Group (PaCSWG) and has attended several meetings of this group.

Balearic Shearwater at sea, photograph by Pep Arcos

Read of support for WAD2020 received from BirdLife national partners in Australia, France, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa and the United Kingdom (all countries that are Parties to ACAP), from a BirdLife regional partner, Falklands Conservation, as well as from the Chief Executive of BirdLife International, Patricia Zurita.

Click here to read SEO/BirdLife's own post in Spanish on World Albatross Day.

With thanks to Pep Arcos.  ACAP Latest News extends its best wishes to its friends in Spain and to all its inhabitants in a difficult time.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 March 2020