The Hawaiian Department of Land and Natural Resources (DNLR) has reminded coastal residents on the island of Kauai to  keep their domestic cats indoors and dogs leashed or fenced in from now until July next year in regions where Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis breed (click here).  DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife is distributing informational flyers to encourage the public to help protect the seabirds.

“We are asking dog owners to be responsible with their pets when walking along our coastal areas,” said Kaua‘I biologist Thomas Ka‘iakapu.  “The message is simple – keep your dogs under control and on their leads.  That way we can prevent these kinds of incidents from happening over and over again”.

In previous years there have been a number of cases of both chicks and adults being killed by domestic, stray and feral animals on Kauai (click for examples for cats and for dogs).

Laysan Albatrosses killed by dogs on Kauai in 2004, photograph by Brenda Zaun

Read about the suburban albatrosses of Princeville and along the north-eastern shore on Kauai.

Two well-illustrated blogs follow the fortunes of the Kauai’s suburban-breeding albatrosses:

http://albatrossdiary.com/

http://www.albatrosskauai.com/

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 December 2015

Malta holds 10% of the World’s Vulnerable Yelkouan Shearwaters Puffinus yelkouan (a potential candidate species for ACAP listing), 3% of Scopoli’s Shearwaters Calonectris diomedea and half of the population of Mediterranean Storm Petrels Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis.  At an international workshop Protecting Seabirds in the Mediterranean: Advancing the Marine Protected Area Network held in Gozo, Malta last week BirdLife Malta announced that half of Maltese waters are internationally important for seabirds, following the  findings of the EU-funded LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project.

Yelkouan Shearwater at sea

IBA areas for Yelkouan Shearwaters around Malta

IBA areas for Scopoli's Shearwaters around Malta

These  newly identified Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in Maltese waters are now being considered for declaration as Marine Special Protection Areas by the Maltese Government, who were partners in the project (click here).

Karmenu Vella, EU Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, addressed the workshop by video link to welcome the news as  an important contribution to European nature protection.

“Natura 2000 sites are the centrepiece of European nature legislation, helping in our efforts to halt biodiversity loss.  Less than 2% of the EU’s offshore waters are currently part of the network… for Natura 2000 to fulfil its potential we need many more offshore sites.  So I am delighted to see this close collaboration between BirdLife Malta and the Maltese Ministry of Environment.  I look forward to receiving the official notification from Malta that the corresponding Special Protection Areas have been designated”.

Click here to view an illustrated booklet on the LIFE+ Malta Seabird Project by Birdlife Malta.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 November 2015

It has been a while since ACAP Latest News has come across any new (or for that matter old) poetry on ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels (click here).  Welcome then news that the Threatened Bird Network based in Australia ran a poetry competition back in September and that Shoshana Rapley won the competition with the following poem, entitled “Long Line”.

Long Line

The albatross stands waiting
Upon bare cliff-top prow-
The night is swiftly closing-
Unyielding in her vow.

The amber frost horizon
Is dotted black with marks
Of many traveling wingbeats,
Pacing through the dark.

But which one holds the sceptre?
And which one holds the crown?
Where is her Royal nomad?
The sun sinks further down.

The sentinel waits stony-
Dusk washing feathers grey-
In the shrieking icy gale,
She braces briny spray.

To the callous sea she cries,
What secret do you know?
Entreaty plaintive, trembling,
On rock resounds her woe.

Wretched creature,” booms the Sea,
Your love long hast been lost,
And never to you shall return,
For fishing lines he cross’d.

Like meat wrapped in butcher’s string-
Contorted detainee-
Swiftly in death’s gross weight sank
Like lead into the sea.

Albatross with skyward eyes,
Her beak to Southern Cross.
There she stays ‘til stars retreat;
They care not for her loss.

Lost to a longline hook, this Black-browed Albatross will not return home to its mate, photograph by Graham Robertson 

TheThreatened Bird Network of BirdLife Australia is a community-based programme aimed at encouraging participation in urgent conservation tasks for threatened birds.  Established in 1996 it continues to link the community with conservation of our threatened birds (click here).

With thanks to Barry Baker for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 November 2015

An ACAP-listed and Endangered Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi has made an unusual flight after recently being found injured off the Kaikoura coast of New Zealand’s South Island.  Air New Zealand gave the bird a free ticket to Wellington in the North Island for specialist treatment by the city zoo’s animal hospital, The Nest Te Kohanga.

The albatross was captured by fishers who thought it had a broken wing.  It was initially treated at VetCARE Kaikoura where it weighed less than 5 kg, below the average of 6 - 9 kg for the species.  X-rays were taken of the damaged wing before it was immobilised with a bandage and given pain relief before being transported.

The injured Northern Royal Albatross from Kaikoura

VetCARE’s Tom Dunnett and Department of Conservation Ranger Jody Weir treat the injured Northern Royal Albatross

The bird found off Kaikoura is thought likely to be from the Chatham Islands as it did not have any bands that would have identified it as coming from the mainland colony at Taiaroa Head near Dunedin.

Air New Zealand has a partnership with the Department of Conservation for transporting threatened species between regional centres as part of an active recovery programme.

Read more here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 November 2015