Regular readers of ACAP Latest News will not be surprised to hear that as ACAP’s honorary Information Officer I have a good collection of books on procellariiform seabirds in my personal library – helpful as I research articles for the ACAP website. Among them are 17 books, nearly all on albatrosses, aimed at children that I have been collecting (and reviewing) over the last decade or so. Of these, no less than four have the North Pacific’s Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis as their subject bird. I also have two popular books on the Laysan Albatross that will be accessible to older children and to young adults. So is there space for yet another one on the bird?

Caren Loebel-Fried’s A Perfect Day for an Albatross published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology this August is, according to the advertising blurb, aimed at children aged six to thirteen years. My own take is that it is best aimed at the younger child in this range. As I read the text I got the feeling it’s a book to read out loud to young children at bedtime while they look at the author’s illustrations. By age thirteen I think children should be ready to read about albatrosses in more than just a picture book: Hob Osterlund’s Holy Mōlī, also on the Laysan Albatross, comes to mind.

The book describes the return of a young female Laysan Albatross, named Mālie (meaning “calm” or “serene” in the Hawaiian language), to Midway Atoll, an island the author has visited, after four years at sea. Mālie meets a male albatross called Kumukahi (”beginning” or “origin”) and after a few years of displaying together they commence to breed. Kumukahi takes over incubation duty and Mālie goes foraging at sea, catching squid and flying fish eggs and having the perfect day of the book’s title.

The award-winning author from Volcano Village on the “Big Island" of Hawai’i has created the book’s illustrations by hand carving linoleum blocks and then transferring their images with oil-based ink to hand-made Gampi paper. She then colours the prints with pencils and back ink (click here). The ensuing illustrations, which appear on every page, are bold and striking. I particularly liked the ones of the two albatrosses mutually displaying against the bright orange rays of a setting sun and of Mālie seemingly plunging through a maelstrom to seize a squid. The books ends with some factual information on albatross biology and conservation, helpful to answer questions that a child might raise.

"Reuniting":  Mālie and Kumukahi together.  The original print is being auctioned with proceeds going to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (click here)

"A perfect day"

The four other children’s books on Laysan Albatrosses in my library are in contrast all illustrated with paintings, not prints. Garbage Guts by Heidi Auman has a conservation theme as her albatross, Aria, struggles to deal with plastic pollution, having ingested bottle tops, toothbrushes and the like. Bryan Knowles’ Where Albatrosses Soar relates a story told in rhyme by a father to his son. Wisdom the Midway Albatross by Darcy Pattison with illustrations by Kitty Harvill is about the world's oldest known Laysan Albatross, first banded in 1956, and at last report still going strong (click here). The fourth book, Albatross of Kaua’i. The Story of Kaloakulua, written and illustrated by Susan Dierker, is the story of a real chick of the same name (referring to a phase of the waning moon) watched from its egg stage to fledging in 2013 via a “trosscam” mounted next to a nest on Kaua’i and operated by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

Twenty-five years or so ago if I then had all five books I would have read them to my daughter and then asked her which one she preferred. Who knows, one day I might be able to ask the question of a grandchild! Until then, I can recommend Carin’s latest book to parents looking for a gift for their pre-teen child. It can only help install and encourage a respect and love for the magnificent beings that albatrosses truly are.

The book is stated by the publisher as the first of a children’s series that “focuses on a fascinating bird species”. Perhaps a future book in the new series might take the rarer Black-footed Albatross P. nigripes that breeds alongside the Laysan Albatross on the low-lying atolls of the North-Western Hawaiian islands as its main subject. So far the score is 5:0 in favour of the more abundant Laysan!

With thanks to Caren Loebel-Fried.

Reference:

Loebel-Fried, C. 2017. A Perfect Day for an Albatross. Apex: Cornell Lab Publishing Group. Unpaginated [40 pp.]. ISBN 978-1-943645-27-5. Hardcover, many colour illustrations. USD 15.95. www.cornelllabpg.com.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 October 2017

Starting next month a monitoring survey will be undertaken on South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)* to ascertain if any rodents remain after a five-year eradication project carried out in three phases from 2011 to 2015. Three terrier dogs Will, Wai and Ahu, with their handlers Miriam Ritchie and Jane Tansell from New Zealand, will be deployed to sniff our rats and mice.  "They are hugely experienced in seeking out elusive rodents, having searched sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island and many other locations following eradication attempts."

Ahu, rodent detector terrier at work

Transferring poison bait from ship to shore for the rodent eradication project

“International guidelines suggest that at least two years should elapse after baiting before an area can be considered to have been cleared of rodents. As the survey work will begin in November 2017 it will be close to three years since even the most recent bait application, so the results will be robust.  A combination of inert detection devices such as wax tags, stakes and camera traps will be used alongside the sniffer dogs to provide a ‘belt and braces’ approach to detection. Devices are not infallible – they can be washed away or displaced by passing wildlife and some rodents are wary of chewing a stick, even one soaked in peanut oil or another tasty treat. Using dogs in addition to inert devices avoids these limitations and allows a far wider area to be surveyed.”

Read more about this summer's work here.

Click here to read about a recent publication describing the eradication project in detail.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 October 2017

*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.

During the SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference (POLAR2018) to be held in Davos, Switzerland over 19-23 June next year there will be a session on Polar Wildlife - Ecology, Health and Disease. The deadline for abstract submissions is 1 November.

The session (BE-8) description follows:

“Although the environments of the Arctic and Antarctic differ profoundly, these regions, and their species, share characteristics that make them vulnerable to anthropogenic change, climate change and invasion of non-native microorganisms. These threats have already altered the ecology, health, susceptibility to disease, and population structure of several Arctic and Antarctic wildlife species. This joint session will focus on sharing information on the threats that face wildlife health and persistence and how to monitor and to prevent future threats.”

The Lead Convenor for Session BE-8 is Andres Barbosa of the Museum of Natural History in Madrid, Spain.

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross on Prince Edward Island, photograph by Peter Ryan

On Friday 15 June an all-day workshop will be held at the conference venue entitled Arctic and Polar Wildlife – Connecting Ecology, Health and Disease Issues in a Changing World.

Both events have been organized by the Working Group on Wildlife Health Monitoring of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Expert Group of Birds and Marine Mammals (SCAR EG-BAMM).  The expert group will meet in Davos on 16 June with working groups reporting on Trophic Interactions, Health Monitoring, Remote Sensing, Tag and band sightings form, etc.  Progress with the Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data project will also be presented (click here).

With thanks to Yan Ropert-Coudert, SCAR EG-BAMM Secretary for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 October 2017

Amanda Gladics (Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Newport, USA) and colleagues have published in the journal Fisheries Research on the use of bird-scaring lines and night setting in a North Pacific demersal fishery.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Bird scaring lines (BSLs) protect longline fishing gear from seabird attacks, save bait, reduce incidental seabird mortality and are the most commonly prescribed seabird bycatch mitigation measure worldwide. We collaborated with fishermen to assess the efficacy of applying BSL regulations from the demersal longline sablefish fishery in Alaska to a similar fishery along the U.S West Coast. In contrast to Alaska, some U.S. West Coast vessels use floats along the line to keep hooks off the seafloor, where scavengers degrade the bait and the target catch. Our results confirmed that BSL regulations from Alaska were sufficient to protect baits from bird attacks on longlines without floats, but not baits on longlines with floats. Longlines with floats sank below the reach of albatrosses (2 m depth) at a distance astern (157.7 m ± 44.8 95% CI) that was 2.3 times farther than longlines without floats (68.8 m ± 37.8 95% CI). The floated longline distance was well beyond the protection afforded by BSLs, which is approximately 40 m of aerial extent. Black-footed albatross attacked floated longlines at rates ten times more (2.7 attacks/1000 hooks, 0.48–4.45 95%CI) than longlines without floats (0.20 attacks/1000 hooks, 0.01–0.36 95% CI). Retrospective analysis of NOAA Fisheries Groundfish Observer Program data suggested that seabird bycatch occurs in a few sablefish longline fishing sectors and a minority of vessels, but is not confined to larger vessels. Analysis also confirmed fishermen testimonials that night setting reduced albatross bycatch by an order of magnitude compared to daytime setting, without reducing target catch. Night setting could be an effective albatross bycatch prevention practice if applied to the U.S. West Coast sablefish longline fishery and provide a practical alternative for vessels that elect to use floated longlines. These results highlight the importance of understanding region-specific longline gear modifications to identify effective bycatch reduction tools and the value of working collaboratively with fishermen to craft solutions.”

Read popular articles on the paper here and here.

Twin bird-scaring lines keep birds at bay on a USA West Coast longline vessel, photograph by Amanda Gladics

Black-footed Albatross at sea, photograph by Vicki Miller

Reference:

Gladics, A.J., Melvin, E.F., Suryan, R.M., Good^, T.P., Jannot^, J.E. & Guy, T.J. 2017. Fishery-specific solutions to seabird bycatch in the U.S. West Coast sablefish fishery. Fisheries Research 196: 85-95.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 October 2017