National Geographic in collaboration with the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) is providing grants for the recovery of species on the brink of extinction.

Proposals that focus on the following three themes are encouraged:

Specific and defensible priority actions to avert a species decline;

Projects that include the active involvement of early career conservationists; and

Projects that support conservation leaders from the countries where the species occur.

A typical proposal request will be for less than US$ 30 000.  However, applicants may request up to US$ 50 000.  The application deadline is 10 July 2018, with decisions to be announced by November.

Critically Endangered: A Tristan Albatross incubates on Inaccessible Island, photograph by Katrine Herrian

For more information click here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 July 2018

A researcher holds a collapsed balloon entangled with the corpse of an albatross chick on Kure Atoll, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

Photograph by Andy Sullivanhaskins, Hawaii Department of Lands and Natural Resources

The Marine Debris Program of the USA’s National Oceanic and Administration (NOAA) has reported recently on the dangers balloons can cause to marine life:

“Balloons that are released into the air don’t just go away, they either get snagged on something such as tree branches or electrical wires, deflate and make their way back down, or rise until they pop and fall back to Earth where they can create a lot of problems. Many balloons that are not properly disposed of end up in the ocean and along shores, becoming marine debris. Balloons can be carried by currents and winds, having far reaching impacts. Once balloons enter the ocean, they can become yet another hazard for marine wildlife. Balloons can be mistaken for food, and if eaten and ingested, balloons and other marine debris can lead to loss of nutrition, internal injury, starvation, and death. String or ribbon that is often found attached to balloons can cause entanglement. String can wrap around marine life causing injury, illness, and suffocation.”

ACAP Latest News has previously reported on several species of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels interacting with balloons, both by ingestions and entanglements (click here).

The NOAA Marine Debris Program co-hosted the Sixth International Marine Debris Conference (6IMDC) with UN Environment in San Diego, California, USA in March this year.  The conference proceedings are now available.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 July 2018

Australia will host the next Open Science Conference of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in Hobart, Tasmania, one of five Gateway Cities and home of the Australian Antarctic Division, in August 2020.  The most recent biennial SCAR Open Science Conference was held last month in Davos, Switzerland.   As well as the next Open Science Conference, SCAR under the overall heading "Antarctic Science Global Connections" will also hold its Business and Delegates’ Meetings and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) will have its Annual General Meeting in August 2020.

The Australian Antarctic Division’s Chief Scientist Dr Gwen Fenton said in Davos:

“SCAR delivers major international scientific collaborative research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean and the Committee also provides independent scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty parties.  The 2020 meetings will offer Hobart an opportunity to showcase itself as the premier gateway to East Antarctica, the home of the Australian Antarctic Program and world-class Antarctic science.”

Australia’s new icebreaker RSV Nuyina, currently under construction, is due to arrive in Hobart in mid-2020 and tours of the state-of-the art scientific platform and resupply vessel will be included in the SCAR and COMNAP programmes.

SCAR President, Professor Steven Chown of Monash University, said Hobart is an ideal place for SCAR to meet with its critical mass of Antarctic researchers.

 “Australia has supported SCAR throughout its 60 year history and its scientists have had a tremendous influence on what we know about Antarctica and the Southern Ocean and their global significance.”

ACAP’s Seventh Session of its Meeting of Parties is due be held in Hobart, home of the ACAP Secretariat, in 2021.

Adapted from an Australian Antarctic Division media release.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 July 2018

A Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris metal (121-A9056) and colour (Red 352) banded as a chick on Macquarie Island on 6 March 2009 was brought aboard alive an industrial longline vessel fishing for Broad-billed Swordfish Xiphias gladius near Isla Choros, Coquimbo Region, Chile on 1 July 2017 (click here).

The time between banding and recovery was eight years, three months and 25 days.  According to the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme (ABBBS) the bird had travelled a linear distance of 9350 km.

Long-way from home: Macquarie Island to the coast of Chile for a banded Black-browed Albatross

The bird was hooked in its left foot, assumed likely during line hauling as it was in good condition.  The vessel was not using a bird-scaring line at the time but the hooks were weighted (75 g).  After being measured it was released by Luis Díaz Báez, a Chilean Fisheries Development Institute (Instituto de Fomento Pesquero, IFOP) scientific observer aboard as part of the Highly Migratory Resource Monitoring Project directed by IFOP’s Dr. Patricia Zárate.  The bird was not photographed.

Fewer than 50 pairs of Black-browed Albatrosses currently breed on Macquarie Island.  According to information supplied to Patricia Zárate from Australia this is the first record of a banded Macquarie bird from the south-eastern Pacific.

Dr. Zárate informs ACAP that as a Party to the Agreement Chile is committed to maintaining a favourable conservation status for albatrosses and petrels that occur along its coast.

Read a news item on the record here.  The original IFOP report of the recapture can also be read in Spanish.

With thanks to Luis Adasme, Ilia Cari and Patricia Zárate for additional information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 July 2018