The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) was established by international convention in 1982 with the objective of conserving Antarctic marine life.  The 34th Annual Meetings of CCAMLR were held in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia last month.

Once again proposals for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in East Antarctica and in the Ross Sea Region were not adopted:

“Each of these proposals have [sic] evolved over the past few years as proponents incorporate feedback from other Members.  This year the Ross Sea Region proposal, which was amended to include a krill and an expanded special research zone, gained further support from Members.  Proponents of both proposals will continue discussions over the next 12 months and the proposals will likely be back on the agenda for the annual meeting in 2016" (click here).

CCAMLR has reported as a highlight of this year’s meetings:  “ACAP attributed the lowest seabird by-catch ever recorded in the Convention Area, this past season, to CCAMLR’s continued excellence in high-seas fisheries management.”

Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses occur within CCAMLR waters, photograph by Aleks Terauds

CCAMLR and ACAP renewed their Memorandum of Understanding without emendation from the original text of March 2013 (click here).

This year’s CCAMLR meetings were attended by ACAP’s Science Officer Wiesława Misiak and Executive Secretary, Warren Papworth.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 November 2015

Guidelines for Cooperation between ACAP and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) were agreed to this week at the 24th Regular Meeting of the ICCAT Commission, held in St. Julians, Malta over 10 to 17 November.  The Guidelines follow the format of the Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) that have been adopted with many other fisheries management bodies, including the four other tuna Regional Fishery Management Organizations (tRFMOs).

Because a number of substantive changes has been made to the MoU template approved by ACAP Parties, their approval will be required for the amended text before the Guidelines can be signed by the respective organisations.  Support for adoption of the Guidelines was provided by ACAP Party Members attending the Commission meeting, which included Brazil, Uruguay, France (Overseas Territories), South Africa, Norway, and European Parties represented by the European Union, as well as Japan and the United States of America.

The meeting in progress, photograph by Warren Papworth

A range of other issues of relevance to the Agreement's work was discussed at the meeting including:

a DRAFT RECOMMENDATION BY ICCAT CONCERNING THE APPLICATION OF AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO FISHERIES MANAGEMENT (PLE 119A/2015);

a DRAFT RECOMMENDATION BY ICCAT CONCERNING THE USE OF A PRECAUTIONARY APPROACH IN IMPLEMENTING ICCAT CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT MEASURES (PLE 120A/2015); and

a DRAFT RECOMMENDATION BY ICCAT TO ESTABLISH AN ICCAT SCIENTIFIC OBSERVER PROGRAMME WITHIN THE ICCAT CONVENTION AREA (PWG 409/2015).

Click here to access the above and other meeting documents and here for the ICCAT press release on the meeting.

ACAP was represented at the Commission meeting by its Executive Secretary, Mr Warren Papworth.

Warren Papworth, ACAP Executive Secretary, 20 November 2015

 A GigaPan Camera can take hundreds of individual photos that combine into huge panoramic images.  Initially designed for NASA (the USA’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration) the camera had been used a sports stadiums to photograph individual people, Fans can then tag themselves from among the many photographed (click here).

The technique is now being used to study Near Threatened Shy Albatrosses Thalassarche cauta on Albatross Island in the Bass Strait north of Tasmania following a successful five-day test (click here).  Following the test and some adaptations for the rugged environment the camera has now collected six months of images of albatrosses on the island with-two panoramic shots per day.

Shy Albatrosses, photograph by Aleks Terauds

“Not only could [the researchers] zoom into specific nests on any given day, they also used software called Time Machine, which was developed by Carnegie Mellon University, to create months-long movies of each nest within the broader panorama.  The software allowed them to follow nests through the entire breeding season instead of just seeing it in person a few weeks a year.  They could play the movie backward and forward to find notable occurrences, such as when eggs hatched or why they failed.”

The GigaPan camera has now arrived back on Albatross Island for its second full breeding season.

Read more here.

Reference:

Lynch, T.P., Alderman, R. & Hobday, A.J. 2015.  A high-resolution panorama camera system for monitoring colony-wide seabird nesting behaviour.  Methods & Statistics in Ecology DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12339.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 November 2015

Regular readers of ACAP Latest News will know of the plans to eradicate introduced House Mice Mus musculus next year on New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic Antipodes Island, home of seven species of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels.

Antipodes Island, with mouse-free Bollins Island beyond, photograph by Erica Sommer

The Million Dollar Mouse project has now reported on the latest development -“Operation Endurance” - in the campaign.

“From February – April 2016 the NZ Defence Force will support the Department of Conservation (DOC) with work in the NZ Subantarctics; this includes work on Campbell Island and the Antipodes Islands.  Two teams will travel on the HMNZS Canterbury to the Subantarctics in February, firstly dropping off a team on Campbell then moving onto the Antipodes Islands.  In addition to the NZ Navy, the NZ Air Force and NZ Army will be on board the HMNZS Canterbury and will provide assistance and support through the use of the Air Force helicopter the Seasprite and Army personnel for coordinating and moving loads from the vessel to the island.  There will be 75 loads in total weighing approximately 27 tonne; loads will be flown by helicopter from the vessel to the island. Loads include a small digger, two power barrows, 15 tonne of timber, and a water tank, a fire escape window for the hut, tools, fuel and food plus the helicopter hangar.

A team of 11 people (DOC staff, contractors and volunteers) will spend 18 days working on the Antipodes Islands in preparation for the mouse eradication start date which is June 2016.  Work will involve levelling a site for the heli-platform, construct the helicopter platform, testing the helicopter hangar on heli-platform, complete hut repairs, and prepare sites for a second helicopter landing site and temporary accommodation shelters.  In addition monitoring staff will undertake mouse monitoring on the unvisited offshore islands and trial mouse monitoring methodology on the main island.” Click here to read more.

Antipodean Albatrosses on Antipodes: at risk to mice?  Photograph by Erica Sommer

The results of the Antipodes exercise will help inform progress towards eradicating mice on the UK’s Gough and South Africa’s Marion, both islands where the species is the only introduced mammal remaining.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 November 2105