Drones (unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs) equipped with cameras offer a new and convenient way of surveying colonially-breeding seabirds with less disturbance and more accuracy than by conducting ground counts (click here for an example of their use).

However, flying drones above seabirds (and other wildlife) poses conservation issues.  What minimum height should be used to avoid disturbance from the sight or sound of a moving object overhead?  Also what should be done to reduce the risk of mid-air collisions with flying birds with possible mortalities– and damage to the drone itself?  In addition to the requirement for a code of practice for the use of drones in research and monitoring there is a need to control the use of drones for purely recreational purposes over or near seabird colonies, most especially those that support threatened species.

Most ACAP-listed albatross and petrels breed on uninhabited islands so disturbance caused by recreational drones (most small remotely controlled quadcopters) seems likely to be uncommon.  But colonies of surface-nesting albatrosses close to human populations (such as on the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Oahu and on South Island, New Zealand) may be at risk - as shown by a recent example from Taiaroa Head in New Zealand where Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi breed when a drone was found crash landed within five metres of an albatross nest site.

A Northern Royal Albatross guards its chick at Taiaroa Head, photograph  by Lyndon Perriman

“The Department of Conservation [DOC] are concerned about drones being flown over the royal albatross colony at Taiaroa Head after one crashed there last week.  DOC said the drone crash came as the number of tourists and locals using drones at the colony of the endangered bird had increased over the last year.  The crashed drone, a white and silver DJI Phantom 3 advanced model, was found undamaged within the colony on Thursday last week by DOC ranger Lyndon Perriman.  In the second incident within a week, Mr Perriman spoke to the owner of a drone being flown around the car park beside the Albatross Centre.

As a result the Otago Peninsula Trust had erected temporary signs in the car park saying drones were not allowed in the area, with permanent signs will be erected soon”.

All aircraft, including drones, are restricted from using the airspace above the Taiaroa Head albatross colony, a nature reserve with public entry by permit only, as they could disturb wildlife and be a hazard to visitors.  Recreational and commercial use of drones on or over public conservation land and waters of New Zealand requires authorisation from DOC; drone operators are also required to abide by Civil Aviation rules, including not operating in restricted airspace.  Breaching of regulations could lead to prison sentences of up to two years and fines of up to NZ$100 000.

Lyndon Perriman ho0olds up the no-fly zone sign

Read more:

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/drone-concerns-albatross-colony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBHY-wi1BRM&app=desktop

http://www.doc.org.nz/news/media-releases/2016/drone-found-within-albatross-colony/

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 October 2016

The 6th International Albatross and Petrel Conference (IAPC6) held in Barcelona, Spain last month ended with scientist and poet Víctor Bonetarbolí reading out a poem he had written especially for the conference in both Catalan and English.  He was introduced by conference organizer, Jacob González-Solís, who gave the closing address, which included making the awards for the best oral and poster presentations by students.  The closing address with the student awards and poetry reading may be viewed and listened to on a video link that can be found on the conference website (click here).

Víctor recites his poem at the IAPC6 Closing Ceremony

potser en altres planetes

s’ocupen més de viure que no pas de no morir
i no busquen problemes per a tantes solucions
que arriben atzaroses
a mans de qui les vol
potser en altres planets
no amunteguen tan de saber
en castells que fan de talaia
o que no vegis res

potser en altres planets
saben que el morir-se
és problema o enigma que es resol en sí mateix:
només cal conjugar el verb

maybe in other planets

they care more about living than about trying not to die
and they do not look for problems to so many solutions
falling by chance
to the hands of a willing man

maybe in other planets
they do not pile so much knowledge
making castles from where to watch over
or that prevent the sight

maybe in other planets
they know that to die
is a problem or enigma that is solved in itself:
you simply need to conjugate the verb

víctor bonetarbolí, Tucston – La Barceloneta – Tucston, setembre 2016

Click here for a report on the conference and a list of oral and presentation presentations on ACAP-listed species and on bycatch issues.

With thanks to Jacob González-Solís.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 October 2016

Jennifer Provencher (Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada) and colleagues have published in the journal Analytical Methods on a standardized methodology for assessing plastic pollution in seabirds and other marine megafauna.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Plastic pollution has become one of the largest environmental challenges we currently face.  The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has listed it as a critical problem, comparable to climate change, demonstrating both the scale and degree of the environmental problem.  Mortalities due to entanglement in plastic fishing nets and bags have been reported for marine mammals, turtles and seabirds, and to date over 690 marine species have been reported to ingest plastics.  The body of literature documenting plastic ingestion by marine megafauna (i.e. seabirds, turtles, fish and marine mammals) has grown rapidly over the last decade, and it is expected to continue grow as researchers explore the ecological impacts of marine pollution.  Unfortunately, a cohesive approach by the scientific community to quantify plastic ingestion by wildlife is lacking, which is now hindering spatial and temporal comparisons between and among species/organisms.  Here, we discuss and propose standardized techniques, approaches and metrics for reporting debris ingestion that are applicable to most large marine vertebrates.  As a case study, we examine how the use of standardized methods to report ingested debris in Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) has enabled long term and spatial trends in plastic pollution to be studied.  Lastly, we outline standardized metric recommendations for reporting ingested plastics in marine megafauna, with the aim to harmonize the data that are available to facilitate large-scale comparisons and meta-analyses of plastic accumulation in a variety of taxa.  If standardized methods are adopted, future plastic ingestion research will be better able to inform questions related to the impacts of plastics across taxonomic, ecosystem and spatial scales.

Northern Fulmar corpse entangled with plastic

Reference:

Provencher, J., Bond, A., Aver-Gomm, S., Borrelle, S., Bravo Rebolledo, E., Hammer, S., Kühn, S., Lavers, J., Mallory, M., Trevail, A. & van Franeker, J. 2016.  Quantifying ingested debris in marine megafauna: a review and recommendations for standardization.  Analytical Methods  DOI: 10.1039/C6AY02419J.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 October 2016

Biologist Kimberley Kliska currently based on Australia’s Macquarie Island reports on the latest census of ACAP-listed Northern Giant Petrels Macronectes halli after losses incurred during the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project (MIPEP).

“Over the past three weeks, the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife team of ranger Chris and wildlife ranger Marcus along with field biologist Kim and the assistance of trusty volunteers (Ali and George–BOM, chef Rocket and carpenter Joe), have been searching the featherbed for breeding northern giant petrels.  This work is part of the long-term monitoring of giant petrels on Macquarie Island to determine the population trend of these species informing international conservation management.

Northern giant petrels are one of two giant petrel species that breed on Macquarie Island annually, the other being the southern giant petrel.  Northern giant petrels are listed as a rare and vulnerable species under state and federal legislation, respectively.  Historically, the population has suffered from incidental mortality in fisheries and also predation by pest species, such as rats and mice.  The coastal nesting locations of giant petrels also leave them vulnerable to inundation by storm events and large waves: in October 2015 their population was impacted when many nests were washed away by large waves.

As both a scavenger and a predator that consumes small fish and the remains of carcasses, the giant petrels play a vital role in the Macquarie Island ecosystem.  Because of this, they were one species impacted during the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project (MIPEP), where in small numbers the giant petrels suffered incidental mortality through consumption of poisoned rabbit carcasses.  The census aims to monitor population recovery post MIPEP and meet Australia’s international obligations for monitoring threatened species.

The census, conducted in the north west of the island, counts and maps all the northern giant petrel nests in a set area each year.  This provides a comparable number of breeding attempts annually. A follow-up census in January counts all the surviving chicks, which provides an indication of breeding success. Last year the census showed that the population is stable and has continued to increase post-MIPEP.  This year it appears there is a slight increase in breeding numbers, however only time will tell if the chicks survive to continue the cycle.”

Taken from Macquarie’s weekly on-line newsletter (click here for census photos).

Northern Giant Petrel, photograph  by Marienne de Villiers

Read more about MIPEP here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 October 2016