Deborah Pardo (Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Villiers-en-Bois, France & British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK) and colleagues have published open-access in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences on the influence of frequency and magnitude of warm SST extreme climatic events on ACAP-listed Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Climate changes include concurrent changes in environmental mean, variance and extremes, and it is challenging to understand their respective impact on wild populations, especially when contrasted age-dependent responses to climate occur. We assessed how changes in mean and standard deviation of sea surface temperature (SST), frequency and magnitude of warm SST extreme climatic events (ECE) influenced the stochastic population growth rate log(λs) and age structure of a black-browed albatross population. For changes in SST around historical levels observed since 1982, changes in standard deviation had a larger (threefold) and negative impact on log(λs) compared to changes in mean. By contrast, the mean had a positive impact on log(λs). The historical SST mean was lower than the optimal SST value for which log(λs) was maximized. Thus, a larger environmental mean increased the occurrence of SST close to this optimum that buffered the negative effect of ECE. This ‘climate safety margin’ (i.e. difference between optimal and historical climatic conditions) and the specific shape of the population growth rate response to climate for a species determine how ECE affect the population. For a wider range in SST, both the mean and standard deviation had negative impact on log(λs), with changes in the mean having a greater effect than the standard deviation. Furthermore, around SST historical levels increases in either mean or standard deviation of the SST distribution led to a younger population, with potentially important conservation implications for black-browed albatrosses.”

A Black-browed Albatross feeds its chick

Reference:

Pardo, D., Jenouvrier, S., Weimerskirch, H. & Barbraud, C. 2017.  Effect of extreme sea surface temperature events on the demography of an age-structured albatross population.  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 372.  DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0143.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 May 2017

John Parkes (Kurahaupo Consulting, Christchurch, New Zealand) and colleagues have published open-access in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology on the New Zealand Government’s plan to eradicate introduced mammalian predators on island nature reserves by 2025, identifying which islands should be targeted.  Such action would include ridding Auckland Island of its House Mice Mus musculus, feral cats Felis catus and pigs Sus scrofa, thus eliminating their predation of seabirds, including ACAP-listed species, such as the Near Threatened White-capped Albatross Thalassarche steadi - a New Zealand endemic.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“In 2016, the New Zealand Government announced a policy to rid the country of key introduced predators (possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), ship rats (Rattus rattus), Norway rats (R. norvegicus) and mustelids (Mustela spp.)) by 2050. An interim goal under this policy is to remove all mammalian predators (the key species as well as mice (Mus musculus), kiore (R. exulans), cats (Felis catus), pigs (Sus scrofa) and hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus)) from island nature reserves by 2025. We identify the New Zealand islands over one hectare managed as reserves by the Department of Conservation (DOC) that have mammalian predators that can be eradicated. There are over 850 islands, islets, stacks and vegetated rocks in the New Zealand archipelago. We exclude islands in lakes and rivers and those smaller than one hectare, which leaves 616 islands, less than half of which are under some form of reserve status (286 islands entirely managed by DOC and 13 under mixed tenures but with some reserve land). One or more mammalian predators are known to occur on 48 of these islands, with the Government’s 2050 target species on 42 islands and other predators (in the absence of the target species) on six islands. The Government’s 2025 goal nominates one class of reserve, nature reserves. Of the 48 islands, just four islands are classed as nature reserves – two (Mauitaha and Araara Islands) with protected kiore in the Hen and Chickens group and two in the Auckland Islands group (Auckland with mice, cats and pigs; and Masked with mice and cats) – i.e. none with the key species of the wider 2050 goal. Therefore, we consider other reserve classes but place more or less strict risks of reinvasion, as indexed by known swimming ranges of the predators, to judge the feasibility of eradication. Relaxing the reserve class of the island, but not our selection of swimming ranges, results in 15 candidate islands where all mammalian predators present could be eradicated for the 2025 interim goal. Decisions on which islands to select for the programme need to consider costs and other constraints to eradicate different combinations of predators, and whether the island and its predators provide templates for the wider vision of a predator-free New Zealand, i.e. whether any of the key 2050 predators are present, the size of the island, and/or the presence of human inhabitants that complicate the predators to be targeted or constrain the use of some control methods.”

White-capped Albatross at the Auckland Islands, photograph by Graham Parker

Read a popular article on the paper here.

Reference:

John P. Parkes, J.P., Byrom, A.E & Edge, K.A. 2017.  Eradicating mammals on New Zealand island reserves: what is left to do?  New Zealand Journal of Ecology 41.  doi.org/10.20417/nzjecol.41.25.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 May 2017

The Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources is seeking comments on a Draft National Plan of Action for minimising the incidental catch of seabirds in Australian capture fisheries (NPOA–Seabirds).

“The draft NPOA–Seabirds has been developed in collaboration with the Northern Territory and state governments, scientists, environmental non-governmental organisations and commercial and recreational fisheries. The draft responds to concerns about the incidental catch of seabirds in Australian capture fisheries.  It outlines the need for a nationally consistent and coordinated management approach to avoid or minimise the incidental seabird bycatch in all capture fisheries within Australia” (click here).

Australia's endemic Shy Albatross incubates on Albatross Island, photograph by Drew Lee

The scope of this plan includes all species of birds that occur naturally in Australian marine areas, all commercial, recreational and other relevant capture fisheries, all waters under the jurisdiction of Commonwealth, state and Northern Territory fisheries, and all fishing undertaken by Australian-flagged fishing vessels on the high seas, including areas governed by regional fisheries and conservation bodies.

Submissions must be lodged to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 9 June 2017.

Reference:

Department of Agriculture and Water Resources 2017. Draft National Plan of Action for Minimising the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Australian Capture Fisheries.  Canberra: Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.  34 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 May 2017

Davi Castro Tavares (Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense, Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil) and colleagues have published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin on the incidence of plastic items in the digestive tracts of 22 seabird species, including ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels, washed up on the Brazilian coastline.  Highest incidences of ingested plastic werer found in Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris, White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis and Great Shearwaters Ardenna gravis.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Marine debris such as plastic fragments and fishing gears are accumulating in the ocean at alarming rates. This study assesses the incidence of debris in the gastrointestinal tracts of seabirds feeding at different depths and found stranded along the Brazilian coast in the period 2010–2013. More than half (55%) of the species analysed, corresponding to 16% of the total number of individuals, presented plastic particles in their gastrointestinal tracts. The incidence of debris was higher in birds feeding predominantly at intermediate (3–6 m) and deep (20–100 m) waters than those feeding at surface (< 2 m). These results suggest that studying the presence of debris in organisms mainly feeding at the ocean surface provides a limited view about the risks that this form of pollution has on marine life and highlight the ubiquitous and three-dimensional distribution of plastic in the oceans.”

White-chinned Petrels, photograph by Ben Phalan

With thanks to Davi Castro Tavares.

Reference:

Tavares, D.C., J.F. de Moura, A. & Merico, S. 2017.  Incidence of marine debris in seabirds feeding at different water depths.  Marine Pollution Bulletin.  doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.04.012.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 May 2017