The Eleventh Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee (AC11) will be held from Monday 13 to Friday 17 May 2019, in the Jurerê Internacional Il Campanario Hotel, Florianópolis, Brazil.   AC11 Meeting Circular 1 giving information on meeting location and dates, submission of documents and application from Observers is now available online.  Details follow.

Jurerê Internacional Il Campanario Hotel

Meetings of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group, and the Population and Conservation Status Working Group will precede AC11 at the same venue (SBWG9 from Monday 6 to Wednesday 8 May, and PaCSWG5 from Thursday 9 to Friday 10 May).

A Heads of Delegation meeting will be convened on Sunday 12 May 2019 in the late afternoon/ evening. The time for this meeting will be advised closer to the meeting date.

Meeting Documents

The deadlines for submission and distribution of meeting documents for AC11 and the Working Group meetings follow:

11 January 2019 Draft agenda for AC11 (and Working Groups) distributed by the Secretariat

12 February 2019 Deadline for inclusion of new items in the meeting agendas

14 March 2019 Revised draft agendas for AC11 and Working Group meetings distributed

7 March 2019 Deadline for submission of AC11 Working Papers and Working Group Papers requiring translation (full documents are required by this deadline, however, only the abstracts of WG papers will be translated).

29 March 2019 Deadline for submission of AC11 Information Papers, and Working Group Information Papers

6 April 2019 Meeting documents distributed in all working languages by the Secretariat

Dates are close of business local times. Meeting documents will not be accepted after these dates. It would assist the operation of the Secretariat if papers were submitted as early as possible. It would be appreciated if participants could advise the Secretariat in advance of any papers that they intend submitting to the meetings.

Applications for Observer Status

The deadlines for submission of requests for Observer status to attend AC11 are:

12 February 2019 Deadline for submission of written requests for observer status by international bodies

14 March 2019 Deadline for submission of written requests for observer status from non-international bodies

14 March 2019 International bodies advised if their request for observer status has been approved

12 April 2019 Non-international bodies advised if their request for observer status has been approved

Information on registration and other meeting arrangements will be provided in Meeting Circular 2.

Marco Favero, ACAP Executive Secretary & Nathan Walker Chair, ACAP Advisory Committee, 26 October 2018

Through the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP), the Marine Apex Predator Research Unit (MAPRU), Coastal and Marine Research Institute, Nelson Mandela University, in collaboration with the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, is offering a candidate with a minimum of a BSc Honours an opportunity to spend a year on South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion Island collecting field data on seabirds for academic purposes.

The post falls within the project ‘Small Procellariiformes as Indicators of Ecosystem Changes and Plastic Pollution’ led by Dr. Maëlle Connan (Nelson Mandela University) and Prof. Peter Ryan (University of Cape Town).  The project intends to use small procellariiforms breeding on Marion and Prince Edward Islands, the Tristan da Cunha-Gough Archipelago and possibly Antarctica as indicators of the health and status of the Southern Ocean ecosystem. One aspect of the project focuses on the trophic ecology of these species while the other uses the birds as biological samplers to investigate the extent and temporal trends of plastic pollution in the Southern Ocean.

A Whie-chinned Petrel pair duets, photograph by Ben Phalan

The Prince Edward Islands are thought to house 12 burrow-breeding species of birds (including ACAP-listed and globally Near Threatened Grey Procellaria cinerea and globally Vulnerable White-chinned P. aequinoctialis Petrels) and the work will first entail prospecting to identify the breeding areas, which are still unknown for some species. This will require extensive walking over rough terrain under demanding environmental conditions.  Dietary data and a wide range of samples will be collected from seabirds to study their trophic ecology and the current extent of pollution.  The successful applicant will also contribute towards on-going long-term seabird monitoring, involving penguin, giant petrel and albatross species.

South African applicants will receive priority.  Preference will be given to previously disadvantaged individuals who are particularly encouraged to apply for this contract position. Applications to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 15 November 2018.

Read more details here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 October 2018

Once more it’s shearwater fledging time in the Mediterranean.  Both Malta and Spain’s Balearic Islands are urging their public to help rescue fledging Scopoli’s Shearwaters Calonectris diomedea (Least Concern) who become stranded before they reached the ocean.  BirdLife Malta states that the period of 14-24 October is considered the peak period for stranding events due to light pollution, although fledging can continue into the beginning of November.

“Where possible, stranded birds should be collected and gently placed in a cardboard box. The birds should not be given any food or water, but kept in a quiet place until they are retrieved by BirdLife Malta staff to be safely released back at sea”.

Scopoli’s Shearwater has an estimated population of 4500 pairs in Malta, approximately 5% of the world’s breeding population.  BirdLife Malta’s LIFE Arċipelagu Garnija project is working to reduce the impacts of light pollution close to the colonies to ensure long-term protection of seabirds.  An increase in downed birds has occurred during the first three years of the project. This is considered a consequence of both an increase in light pollution and an increase in awareness thanks to the efforts of BirdLife Malta and the public to rescue stranded seabirds.  So far this season 13 fledglings have been collected by members of the Maltese public in the first week; they were all successfully released.

Downed Scopoli's Shearwater fledgling

Read more here.

BirdLife Malta is also encouraging the public, local councils and business owners to reduce outdoor lighting to reduce the chance of strandings.  The LIFE Arċipelagu Garnija team has been working to raise awareness of the problem by distributing leaflets at restaurants and putting up a new project sign at one of the most light-polluted parts of the Maltese coastline, a record spot for stranded Scopoli's Shearwaters.

Bright lights along a Maltese shoreline: not good news for fledging shearwaters, photograph from BirdLife Malta

A similar call to collect downed fledglings in the Balearic Islands has been made this month by the NGO Iniciativa de Reserca de la Biodiversitat de les Illes (IRBI): “during the next few weeks some specimens of [Scopoli’s] shearwater will be light [sic] by the artificial lights on their first flight and will fall into the streets of urban areas” [translated, click here].

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 October 2018

Anthony Caravaggi (School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork, Ireland) and colleagues have yesterday published open access in Ibis - International Journal of Avian Science on estimates of the numbers of breeding seabirds killed annually on UK's Gough Island by the now notorious “killer” House Mice Mus musculus.  Among the 1.5-2.1 million seabirds of 10 species estimated to be killed annually is the ACAP-listed and Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena, which fledges 650-750 less chicks a year due to mice attacks.  As a consequence this near-endemic albatross is thought to be heading for extinction if the mice are not eradicated, planned to be attempted in 2020.

A male Tristan Albatross stands over its downy chick on Gough Island, photograph by Andrea Angel & Ross Wanless

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Invasive species are the main threat to island biodiversity; seabirds are particularly vulnerable and are one of the most threatened groups of birds. Gough Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the South Atlantic Ocean, is an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area, and one of the most important seabird colonies globally. Invasive House Mice Mus musculus depredate eggs and chicks of most seabird species on the island, but the extent of their impact has not been quantified. We used field data and bootstrapped normal distributions to estimate breeding success and the number of surviving chicks for 10 seabird species on Gough Island, and compared estimates with those of analogous species from predator‐free islands. We examined the effects of season and nest‐site location on the breeding success of populations on Gough Island, predicting that the breeding success of Gough birds would be lower than that of analogues, particularly among small burrow‐nesting species. We also predicted that winter‐breeding species would exhibit lower breeding success than summer‐breeding species, because mice have fewer alternative food sources in winter; and below‐ground nesters would have lower breeding success than surface nesters, as below‐ground species are smaller so their chicks are easier prey for mice. We did indeed find that seabirds on Gough Island had low breeding success compared with analogues, losing an estimated 1 739 000 (1 467 000–2 116 000) eggs/chicks annually. Seven of the 10 focal species on Gough Island had particularly high chick mortality and may have been subject to intense mouse predation. Below‐ground and winter breeders had lower breeding success than surface‐ and summer‐breeders. MacGillivray's Prion Pachyptila macgillivrayi, Atlantic Petrel Pterodroma incerta and Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena are endemic or near‐endemic to Gough Island and are likely to be driven to extinction if invasive mice are not removed.”

Read a popular article on the paper's findings by Alex Bond, one of its authors, here.  Also see an RSBP blog by Laura Beasley that gives information on the Gough Island Restoration Programme.  More reports on the publication here and here.

With thanks to Laura Beasley and Anthony Caravaggi.

Caravaggi, A., Cuthbert, R.J., Ryan, P.G., Cooper, J. & Bond, A.L. 2018.  The impacts of introduced House Mice on the breeding success of nesting seabirds on Gough Island.  Ibis doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12664.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 October, 2018