The Eleventh Meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC11) was held from 13 to 17 May in the neighbourhood of Jurerê Internacional, Florianópolis on Brazil’s Santa Catarina Island.  The Population and Conservation Status (PaCSWG5) and Seabird Bycatch (SBWG9) Working Groups met the week before and reported to AC11 (AC11 Docs 9 & 10).

Delegates attending the Eleventh Meeting of the ACAP Advisory Committee, Jurerê Internacional Resort Hotel, Florianópolis, Brazil, May 2019

Photograph by Tatiana Neves

Some of the highlights of AC11 have already been posted to ACAP Latest News and are summarized here:

Declaration of a conservation crisis for albatrosses and petrels.

A World Albatross Day is to be held annually from 19 June 2020.

New Zealand is considering the merits of listing the Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carnepeis in the Agreement.

The Bahamas and a member economy of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), Chinese Taipei, attended AC11 as observers for the first time.

Several other matters of general interest were discussed, a few briefly mentioned here:

Namibia and the USA continue to progress their efforts to become Parties to the Agreement.

Ecuador is preparing to re-nominate the Critically Endangered Galapagos Petrel Pterodroma phaeopygia to the Agreement.

Marco Favero from Argentina, ACAP’s second Executive Secretary from 2016 to 2018, attended the two working group meetings.  He was elected a Co-convenor of the PaCSWG, along with Patricia Pereira Serafini from Brazil by the Advisory Committee.  Welcome back Marco!

Ecuador’s offer to host the Twelfth Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee (AC12) and its working groups next year was warmly welcomed.  ACAP’s Seventh Meeting of the Parties (MoP7) is due to be held in Australia in 2021.

Marco Favero - back in the fold

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 July 2019

A report by NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) presented to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation at a meeting of its Conservation Services Programme (CSP) Technical Working Group late last month describes new research conducted on globally Vulnerable and Nationally Critical Salvin’s Albatrosses Thalassarche salvini breeding on the Bounty Islands.

The report’s Executive Summary follows:

“The Department of Conservation commissioned NIWA to complete ground-based surveys of Salvin’s albatrosses (Thalassarche salvini) that breed on the Bounty Islands. This fieldwork involved deploying transmitting Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices and geolocation data loggers (Global Location Sensing (GLS) tags) on breeding birds on Proclamation Island, Bounty Islands; banding and recapturing birds in a study area; completing counts of breeding and non-breeding birds along transects at various time of the day; and deploying automated time-lapse cameras that covered part of the study area. This report outlines the activities undertaken, data collected and a description of the methods used.

Landings were made on Proclamation Island, Bounty Islands, on 20, 21 and 22 October 2018. During this time 14 transmitting GPS and 54 GLS data loggers were deployed on breeding birds. In addition, 98 birds (including the birds fitted with GPS and GLS tracking devices) were fitted with a uniquely numbered stainless steel leg band, with 97 of these birds also fitted with a red numeric plastic band to facilitate identification without the need for recapture. A total of 12 transect counts were undertaken to determine the proportion of breeding birds ashore. Finally, six time-lapse cameras were deployed so that they covered about 41 nests in the study area. Retrieval of the GLS devices is planned for November 2019.”

A breeding Salvin's Albatross, photograph by Paul Sagar

The Conservation Services Programme monitors the impact of commercial fishing on protected species, studies species populations and looks at ways to limit bycatch. The programme is funded by levies from commercial fishers.

With thanks to Graham Parker, Parker Conservation.

Reference:

Sagar, P., Charteris, M., Parker, G., Rexer-Huber, K. & Thompson, D. 2018.  Salvin's albatross: Bounty Islands population project ground component.   Wellington: National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd.  18 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 June 2019

A group of environmental NGOs (see illustration) has joined together to start a 100% Observer Coverage petition to reduce seabird bycatch in fisheries managed by tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (tRFMOs).

Supporting partners of the 100% Observer Coverage petition 

 The Statement of Support for the petition follows.

 “In many tuna fisheries around the world, the lack of independent monitoring of fishing activity means there is much we cannot see – including many known conservation and compliance problems such as illegal fishing, misreported or unreported catch, and bycatch of endangered, threatened & protected species.  What we can’t see creates risk to fish stocks, to fisheries, and to companies that purchase tuna.

Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) have the power to reduce these risks by requiring 100% observer coverage – human and/or electronic – on industrial tuna fishing vessels.  100% observer coverage provides the means to mitigate the conservation and compliance issues that put tuna stocks, ocean ecosystems, and tuna supply chains at risk.

100% observer coverage can and must happen soon.  There are no longer credible reasons to delay.  We are committed to working together to make 100% observer coverage a reality. Join us in support of 100% observer coverage requirements across all tuna RFMOs.”

BirdLife International describes the reason for the petition:

“Unless you work in conservation, ‘bycatch’ is probably not a word you hear very often. In fact, it may be something you’ve never heard of before. And yet bycatch - when animals get unintentionally caught and killed in fishing gear - is one of the biggest threats to seabirds in the world.

Collectively, seabirds are one of the most threatened group of birds on the earth. Nearly one third of all species are Globally Threatened with extinction, and nearly half are experiencing population declines.  Bycatch is a big part of these statistics.

Fortunately, there are some very effective measures that mitigate the problem of bycatch. Setting fishing lines at night is one way to ensure that birds like albatrosses and petrels, which feed during the day, don’t get caught on hooks and drowned.  Another is to attach bird scaring or ‘Tori’ lines with bright streamers to vessels to frighten birds away.  Fishers can also attach weights to lines so that they sink quickly, so birds can’t reach the bait.

When used, these methods can result in over a 90% reduction in bycatch.  The problem, though, is that these mitigation methods are not always used.  A recent study using satellites and algorithms to measure whether boats were setting lines at night found that less than 15% did.  The statistic highlighted a persistent problem with mitigation methods: they are only effective when actually put in place.  All too frequently, these methods aren’t being utilized.

That’s why BirdLife International is joining with other leading environmental NGOs to call for 100% independent observer coverage of tuna fisheries.  If Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) require 100% observer coverage - either human and/or electronic - on industrial tuna vessels problems like illegal fishing, misreported or unreported catch, and bycatch of threatened species like albatrosses will all substantially decrease.”

The petition is being run via The Action Network.

Longline fishing hooks found beside globally Vulnerable Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans nests on Marion Island, photograph by John Cooper

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 June 2019

Lucas Krüger (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, University of Coimbra, Portugal) and colleagues have published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology on the personalities of Cory's Shearwaters Calonectris borealis in relation to foraging and breeding.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Personality is relevant in shaping the way animals respond to environmental conditions. Some personality traits may be disadvantageous under non-optimal environmental conditions, reducing foraging success and breeding performance in the long term.  In this study we tested whether individual personality plays a role in determining shifts in seabirds' foraging behaviour and habitat use when environmental conditions are poor.  We used GPS-tracking information from chick-rearing Cory's Shearwaters (Calonectris borealis) during eight consecutive years.  Boldness was measured by the response of the tracked individuals to a novel object presented at their nest.  Foraging habitat was identified as the environment within geographic points where birds were flying at low speed with high turning rates.  We found that bold individuals displayed more foraging habitat consistency and boldness influenced foraging habitat during years of poor environmental conditions.  Bold individuals tended to remain closer to the colony under poor environmental conditions, while shy individuals dispersed considerably farther from the colony.  However, there was no influence of the personality on breeding success, and the whole population tended to have a lower probability of breeding success during years of poor conditions.  During adverse environmental conditions, shy birds shifted habitat, probably as consequence of exploitative competition with the bold birds, but this has no effect on the birds' ability to successfully raise a chick.”

Cory's Shearwater, photograph by John Graham

Reference:

Krüger, L., Pereira, J.M., Paiva, V.H. & Ramos, J.A. 2019  Personality influences foraging of of a seabird under contrasting environmental conditions.  Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 516: 123-131.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 June 2019