The Friends of Midway Atoll NWR have recently reported on the most recent counts of breeding albatrosses on the atoll in the North-Western Hawaiian Islands as follows.

“Hatch year 2015 far surpassed any previous documented year for nesting Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge with 666 044 pairs recorded.  The 2015 year count for Laysan Albatross represents a 52% increase over the average number for the period from hatch years 2010 to 2014.  Black-footed Albatross P. nigripes nesting pairs came in at 28 610 for the atoll, also a new record, up just over 18% from the 2010-2014 average.  The previous high year for Laysan Albatross was 2006 with 487 527 - whereas for Black-footed Albatross, the previous high was 28 581 in 2011.

The reference “hatch year 2015” defines the albatross breeding season from the time eggs were laid in November 2014, hatched in January 2015, and expected to leave Midway Atoll NWR by July 2015.”

Illustrations courtesy of Friends of Midway NWR and US Fish & Wildlife Service 

For graphs, photos, and video of the count effort and albatross mating and nesting activity on Midway Atoll click here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 September 2016

A series of short presentations entitled "Seabirds at the crossroads: Perspectives, Challenges and Solutions" touching on various aspects of seabird conservation with a focus on multiple disciplines and the potential for synergistic collaborations will be held all over the space of an hour on Sunday 4 September at the IUCN World Conservation Congress taking place this week in the Hawaiʻi Convention Center, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, USA.

“Seabirds breed on land, feed at sea, and cover vast distances, often crossing entire ocean basins.  These characteristics require conservation approaches that are holistic and based on multiple disciplines.  This event will highlight conservation challenges and cutting-edge solutions grounded in biology, economics, governance, and sociology.  Because of their highly migratory nature, seabird conservation solutions provide spill-over benefits to the marine ecosystems as a whole.”

Laysan Albatrosses at Hawaii's Kaena Point, photograph by Lindsay Young

A list of the speakers and their presentation titles follows:

Seabirds at the crossroads: perspectives, challenges and solutions - Lisa Ballance

Global and regional priorities for seabird conservation - Kyle Van Houtan

Feathered oceanographers: seabirds as bio-indicators - David Hyrenbach

Seabirds: part of the ocean’s “benefits package” - Summer Martin

Racing climate change to the crossroads - David Duffy & Beth Flint

Restoration science:  combining passive and active seabird restoration techniques – Lindsay Young

Fisheries technology:  mitigating unintended mortality - Eric Gilman

Economics:  incentives-based approaches to mitigate bycatch - Dale Squires

Fisheries management: seabirds competing for food with fisheries? - Charlotte Boyd

Governance:  has progress stalled in protecting seabirds through Regional Fisheries Management Organizations? - Karen Baird

Sociology:  community-based solutions for lasting stewardship - Michelle Hester

Communications: do seabirds have a PR problem? - Chris Gaskin

Seabirds at the crossroads: where do we go from here? - Eileen Sobeck

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 31 August 2016

There are still a few days left to register for the 13th International Seabird Group Conference, which takes place over 6-9 September in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Registration closes on Thursday 2 September.  The full programme is now available.  It will open with a plenary from Tony Martin (South Georgia Heritage Trust/University of Dundee) and a welcome reception on the evening of 6 September. This will be followed by three days of oral and poster presentations and further plenaries from Paulo Catry (MARE/ISPA), Emmanuelle Cam (Université de Toulouse) and Tim Birkhead (University of Sheffield).

Arctic or Northern Fulmar

Registration (UK£ 275) includes full conference attendance, refreshments and lunches on all days, the welcome reception and poster reception.

Further details of the conference can be found here and you can register here.

Read an earlier ACAP Latest News item on the conference here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 August 2016

United States President Barack Obama (aka POTUS) last week expanded the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument around the North-western Hawaiian Islands to 1 508 870 km2, increasing the original monument by more than 1.15 million square kilometres (click here).

The expanded MPA, reaching out 200 nautical miles to the edge of the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) west of 163°W, is now the largest in the Word, larger than the three other “million plusser” MPAs in existence: the USA’s Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument at 1 271 500 km² expanded by President Obama in 2014, France’s Natural Park of the Coral Sea (1 292 967 km²; declared in 2012) and the disputed* South Georgia Marine Protected Area (1 070 000 km²; declared in 2012).

It offers enhanced protection to the islands’ ACAP-listed Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses, as well as much other terrestrial and marine biota.  Commercial fishing (such as pelagic longlining for tuna which can result in the bycatch of albatrosses) is not allowed within the expanded MPA, although non-commercial fishing by permit “provided that the fish harvested, either in whole or in part, cannot enter commerce through sale, barter, or trade, and that the resource is managed sustainably” is.

Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses congregate to breed within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument

Read the official proclamation text and accompanying fact sheet.

“Following this historic conservation action, the President will travel to Hawaii next week.  On Wednesday evening, he will address leaders from the Pacific Island Conference of Leaders and the IUCN World Conservation Congress, which is being hosted in the United States for the first time.  On Thursday, he will travel to Midway Atoll, located within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, to mark the significance of this monument designation and highlight first-hand how the threat of climate change makes protecting our public lands and waters more important than ever.”

“Papahānaumokuākea is globally recognized for its biological and cultural significance, being the only mixed UNESCO World Heritage site in the United States and only one of 35 mixed sites in the world.  Its long list of protections includes designation as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area by the International Maritime Organization.  See full list of protections here.”

Read press articles on the MPA expansion here and here.

Read more here on very large Marine Protected Areas.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 August 2016

*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.