Dimas Gianuca (Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK) and colleagues have published in the journal Biological Conservation on making a global assessment of seabird bycatch by sex and age.

The paper’s abstract follows:

Fisheries bycatch is a major threat to seabird populations, and understanding sex- and age-biases in bycatch rates is important for assessing population-level impacts.  We analysed 44 studies to provide the first global assessment of seabird bycatch by sex and age, and used generalised models to investigate the effects of region and fishing method. Bycatch was highly biased by sex (65% of 123 samples) and age (92% of 114 samples), with the majority of samples skewed towards males and adults. Bycatch of adults and males was higher in subpolar regions, whereas there was a tendency for more immatures and females to be killed in subtropical waters. Fishing method influenced sex- and age-ratios only in subpolar regions. Sex- and age-biases are therefore common features of seabird bycatch in global fisheries that appear to be associated largely with differences in at-sea distributions. This unbalanced mortality influences the extent to which populations are impacted by fisheries, which is a key consideration for at-risk species. We recommend that researchers track individuals of different sex and age classes to improve knowledge of their distribution, relative overlap with vessels, and hence susceptibility to bycatch. This information should then be incorporated in ecological risk assessments of effects of fisheries on vulnerable species. Additionally, data on sex, age and provenance of bycaught birds should be collected by fisheries observers in order to identify regions and fleets where bycatch is more likely to result in population-level impacts, and to improve targeting of bycatch mitigation and monitoring of compliance.”

Antipodean Albatross: at risk to long-lining, photograph by Colin O'Donnell

Reference:

Gianuca, D.,  Phillips, R.A., Townley, S. & Votier, S.C. 2017  Global patterns of sex- and age-specific variation in seabird bycatch.  Biological Conservation 205: 60–76.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 December 2016

The Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carnepeis has been categorised as Near Threatened in the just-released 2016 list of threatened birds by BirdLife International.

The up-listing follows a review of the bird’s conservation status and call for comments via the BirdLife International Threatened Seabird Forum (click here for the texts).

The uplisting justification follows: “Despite the poor historical records and the current lack of data across all populations to assess the global population, there is now enough evidence to confirm that its population has been strongly affected by the fisheries operating in Australia and the population on Lord Howe and Sandy Island (Australia) and Lady Alice Island (New Zealand) is declining.  Based on such an evidence, it seems reasonable to suspect that the population has declined by at least 20-30% over three generations and thus the species has been uplisted to Near Threatened.”

One forum commentary stated “The species warrants uplisting to Near Threatened, on the basis of the combined set of demographic and population information, most of which is unfavourable, although with high uncertainty associated with most estimates, and the detailed information about threats to the population that are quantified through fisheries observer work.”

The Flesh-footed Shearwater was identified as a potential candidate for listing within the Agreement in a 2008 publication.  It breeds within the territories of Australia, France and New Zealand, all Parties to ACAP.  Two other shearwaters identified as candidate species in 2008, the Critically Endangered Balearic Puffinus mauretanicus and the Vulnerable Pink-footed A. creatopus have subsequently been listed within the Agreement.

Flesh-footed Shearwater, photograph by Barry Baker

Selected Literature:

Baker, G.B. and Wise, B.S. 2005. The impact of pelagic longline fishing on the Flesh-footed Shearwater Puffinus carneipes in Eastern Australia. Biological Conservation 126: 306-316.

Barbraud, C., Booth, A., Taylor, G.A., Waugh, S.M., 2014. Survivorship in Flesh-footed Shearwater Puffinus carneipes at two sites in northern New Zealand.  Marine Ornithology 42: 91-97.

Cooper, J. & Baker, G.B. 2008.  Identifying candidate species for inclusion within the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  Marine Ornithology 36: 1-8.

Lavers, J.L. 2015.  Population status and threats to Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes) in South and Western Australia.  ICES Journal of Marine Science 72: 316-327.

Priddel, D., Carlile, N., Fullagar, P., Hutton, I. and O’Neill, L. 2006. Decline in the distribution and abundance of Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes) on Lord Howe Island, Australia. Biological Conservation 128: 412-424.

Waugh, S.M., Tennyson, A.J.D., Taylor, G.A. & Wilson, K.-J. 2013.  Population sizes of shearwaters (Puffinus spp.) breeding in New Zealand, with recommendations for monitoring.  Tuhinga – Records of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 24: 159-204.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 December 2016

ACAP Latest News has previously reported that introduced House Mice Mus musculus have taken to attacking and causing the deaths of incubating Laysan Phoebastria immutabilis and Black-footed P. nigripes Albatrosses on Midway Island in the North Pacific (click here).  Planning has now commenced towards their eventual eradication as reported in an article by Meg Duhr-Schultz in the latest issue of Gooney Gazette II, the newsletter of the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Reserve (FOMA)

An extract from the article follows.

“Last winter, Refuge staff and volunteers discovered that invasive House Mice (Mus musculus) were attacking nesting albatrosses on Sand Island.  Our monitoring revealed that a minimum of 480 nests had bitten birds and at least 70 nests were abandoned following a mouse attack to one of the parents.  Nearly 50 Laysan albatrosses died due to mouse attacks.  Working with veterinarians at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center lab in Honolulu to recover and study many of these carcasses, we found that the birds died of infections that stemmed from the bite wounds.  Mortality of breeding adult albatrosses is a major concern for USFWS and eradicating House Mice has become a high priority.  We recently secured grant funding to support an eradication feasibility study and in October, a team of rodent eradication experts from the non-profit group Island Conservation arrived to Midway Atoll NWR to initiate the study.  The first of several site visits, the group worked with us to understand the social, biological, and abiotic factors that would influence the operations and potential success of a mouse eradication.  The team found that eradicating mice, though it will be costly, challenging, and complex, is indeed feasible.  Currently, the Refuge is taking proactive steps to begin the intensive permitting and regulatory work involved with a rodent eradication, as well as formulating plans for mitigating impacts to non-target species.”

Laysan Albatross pair, photograph by James Lloyd

Reference:

Duhr-Schultz, M. 2016.  From the field.  Updates from the Refuge Biology Program.  Gooney Gazette II Winter 2016/2017.  pp. 8-9.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 December 2016

Megan Dalton, a biologist with the non-profit Pacific Rim Conservation, writes in the latest issue of Gooney Gazette II, the newsletter of the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Reserve (FOMA), on plans to establish a colony of globally Near Threatened Black-footed Albatrosses Phoebastria nigripes on the “high” Hawaiian Island of Oahu, as an insurance against sea-level rise.

Her article follows:

“Early next year, 15 young Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) chicks that hatch on Midway Atoll NWR will be translocated to Oʻahu as part of a pioneering effort to establish a protected Black-footed Albatross colony in the Main Hawaiian Islands. The chicks will be brought to a predator-proof enclosure within [the] James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, located on the windswept north shore of Oʻahu, where they will be raised and closely monitored for several months by biologists. Because albatross chicks imprint on their natal site sometime after one month of age, the idea is that they will return to their new home at James Campbell NWR as breeding adults to raise chicks of their own.

Headed by Pacific Rim Conservation and supported by several partnering agencies, the effort is an important step towards creating a safe, high-island (and higher elevation) refugia [sic] for a species that is projected to be heavily affected by climate change and subsequent rising sea levels. Besides a few colonies on volcanically active islands in Japan and one colony on the small islet of Lehua near Kauaʻi, breeding Black-footed Albatross are currently restricted to low-lying islands in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Midway Atoll NWR, Laysan Island, and Tern Island (which support 90% of the world's breeding population) all have very low elevations and are predicted to be highly susceptible to sea-level rise and storm surges in the coming century as global temperatures continue to increase. The chosen translocation site at James Campbell NWR is high enough that these effects should not be an issue. Additionally, birds nesting within the enclosure will be protected from non-native predators that are prevalent in the main islands such as mongooses, rats, and feral cats and dogs.

When choosing the nests on Midway from which to take the chicks from, priority will be given to those located in areas that experience frequent flooding and reduced chick survival under normal circumstances. At approximately 2-3 weeks of age, the chosen chicks will be placed in carriers and transported on a G3 jet to Honolulu, and (if all goes well) will be settled into their new home within just a few hours. They will then be fed a diet of fish and squid slurry for 4-5 months until they are ready to fledge and take to the open seas on their own. Sub-adult Black-footed Albatross will spend at least 5 years at sea before returning to the place they imprinted on as a chick so it will take some time before we might see a breeding colony on Oʻahu start to flourish. This project will build upon two successful years of Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) chick translocations to the same site.

Partners on this project include Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. For more information, please visit www.pacificrimconservation.org.”

Black-footed Albatross, photograph by James Lloyd

To read more about the efforts to establish a colony of Laysan Albatrosses P. immutabilis in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge by translocating eggs from Kauai and hand-rearing the chicks hatched from them click here.

Reference:

Dalton, M. 2016.  A new colony as a stronghold for Black-footed Albatross, Midway Atoll NWR becomes the source for a new albatross colony in the main Hawaiian Islands.  Gooney Gazette II Winter 2016/2017.  p. 12.

John Cooper ACAP Information Officer, 12 December 2016