An occasional series in ACAP Latest News covers the appearance of albatrosses and petrels in art and literature in an endeavour to reach a wider audience.

Pierre Charles Baudelaire was a French poet whose most famous work Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), first published in 1857, "expresses the changing nature of beauty in industrializing Paris during the 19th century."

Charles Baudelaire ((9 April 1821 - 31 August 1867) photographed by Étienne Carjat, c. 1862

Baudelaire wrote a poem L'Albatros, based it seems on personal experience (click here).  A visit to the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris last month resulted in my finding the modest family grave in which he is buried, as well as a cenotaph in his honour – as illustrated here.

The Baudelaire family grave, as well as the poet, contains the remains of his stepfather, with whom he was estranged, and of his mother

The cenotaph was created in 1902 by the sculptor Jose de Charmoy.  It represents a recumbent shrouded figure lying in front of a column topped with a bust of the poet

 Baudelaire’s albatross poem follows, in its original French and as an English translation by Roy Campbell

L'Albatros

Souvent, pour s'amuser, les hommes d'équipage
Prennent des albatros, vastes oiseaux des mers,
Qui suivent, indolents compagnons de voyage,
Le navire glissant sur les gouffres amers.

À peine les ont-ils déposés sur les planches,
Que ces rois de l'azur, maladroits et honteux,
Laissent piteusement leurs grandes ailes blanches
Comme des avirons traîner à côté d'eux.

Ce voyageur ailé, comme il est gauche et veule!
Lui, naguère si beau, qu'il est comique et laid!
L'un agace son bec avec un brûle-gueule,
L'autre mime, en boitant, l'infirme qui volait!

Le Poète est semblable au prince des nuées
Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l'archer;
Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées,
Ses ailes de géant l'empêchent de marcher.

The Albatross

Sometimes for sport the men of loafing crews
Snare the great albatrosses of the deep,
The indolent companions of their cruise
As through the bitter vastitudes they sweep.

Scarce have they fished aboard these airy kings
When helpless on such unaccustomed floors,
They piteously droop their huge white wings
And trail them at their sides like drifting oars.

How comical, how ugly, and how meek
Appears this soarer of celestial snows!
One, with his pipe, teases the golden beak,
One, limping, mocks the cripple as he goes.

The Poet, like this monarch of the clouds,
Despising archers, rides the storm elate.
But, stranded on the earth to jeering crowds,
The great wings of the giant baulk his gait.

Click here to view a video clip of an electronically animated Baudelaire reciting his albatross poem.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 August 2015

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) held its 89th Meeting in Guayaquil, Ecuador from 22 June to 03 July 2015.  Dr Marco Favero, Chair of the ACAP Advisory Committee, represented the Agreement.  In coordination with the ACAP agenda and seabird matters, Dr Esteban Frere represented BirdLife International at the meeting.

In 2011 at its 82nd Meeting, the IATTC adopted Resolution C-11-02 entitled “Resolution to mitigate the impact on seabirds of fishing for species covered by the IATTC”.  This conservation measure, which is currently in place, requires vessels of more than 20 metres in length that fish within the application area to use at least two of the mitigation measures from a two-column table

C-11-02, along with another on observer coverage, certainly addresses seabird bycatch by eastern Pacific longline fishing vessels. However, the resolution is now considered to be out-dated, requiring further amendments in order to (1) reflect the best-practice advice developed by the Agreement’s Seabird Bycatch Working Group, as well as (2) to be in line with conservation measures adopted by other tuna regional fisheries management organizations (tRFMOs), in particular the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).

At the 89th IATTC Commission Meeting the United States of America tabled a revised seabird conservation measure in line with that (CM 2012-07) adopted by the WCPFC in 2012.  The USA text with two separate application areas proposed for southern areas the simultaneous use of at least two of three measures (weighted branch lines, night setting and bird-scaring lines), whereas for northern areas proposed the use of at least two of the mitigation measures in a menu of options.

A bird-scaring line is deployed behind a Pacific longliner, photograph by Ed Melvin

Although not fully in line with ACAP best-practice advice, in particular for mitigation proposed for waters north of 23°N, the adoption of such a text would have implied significant progress compared to the seabird resolution currently in place. Regrettably, discussions on technical specifications and further discrepancies in the views regarding the application areas in the proposed text delayed consideration of the USA proposal at the meeting and finally prevented the adoption of a revised resolution.

ACAP is committed to continue the work with IATTC Parties in order to contribute to the further refinement of the proposal, and it looks forward to the final adoption of a seabird measure that incorporates the latest knowledge in mitigating seabird bycatch by fisheries.

Read an earlier posting on the IATTC’s 89th Meeting here.

Marco Favero, Chair, ACAP Advisory Committee, 10 August 2015

ACAP Latest News has previously reported on several occasions on the efforts by Pacific Rim Conservation to establish a new breeding colony of Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, utilizing eggs collected on the nearby island of Kauai. (click here and follow the string backwards for the full story).

Following artificial incubation, chicks from those eggs that hatched have been hand-reared at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge.  Ten fledglings have now flown from the island (click here for a video clip and here for a news item).

It is intended to repeat the exercise for a further two years, in the hope that the fledglings will return as adults in three to five years’ time to commence breeding within the refuge, thus in time establishing a new albatross colony protected from predicted sea-level rise that threatens the low-lying islands and atolls where most Laysans breed.

A hand-reared Laysan Albatross fledgling starts its take-off run, photograph by Eric Vanderwerf 

 Off to sea!  A hand-reared Laysan Albatross fledges, photograph by Robby Kohley

The translocation project is supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, American Bird Conservancy, US Navy, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

With thanks to Lindsay Young for information and for supplying the photographs.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 August 2015

J.M. “Pep” Arcos and colleagues have written an article in the July 2015 issue of BirdLife Europe’s electronic newsletter Birdseye that considers the conservation needs of the ACAP-listed and Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus.

A paragraph from their article follows:

 “Balearic Shearwater may not be the most colourful bird, it’s rather brownish and could be mistaken for a gull by an untrained eye, but it’s special. Only found as a breeder in the western Mediterranean’s Balearic Islands where it nests in caves, crevices and under rock boulders in inaccessible sea cliffs and small islets.  We think there are just a little over 3,000 breeding pairs, and maybe a global population of about 25,000 individuals.  It’s long lived, most likely some birds live over 30 years though we have no sound data on this, it begins mating at 3 years of age, and lays a single egg per year.  Losing adult birds is therefore of serious concern, as they are not quickly or easily replaced.  Unfortunately, the population has been steadily declining as a consequence of several threats, particularly fisheries bycatch at sea and predation by invasive species on land. This trend is alarming and scientists say it could become extinct in slightly over half a century.”

A Balearic Shearwater at its cave breeding site, photograph by Miguel McMinn 

Click here for an earlier account on the Balearic Shearwater in ACAP Latest News and here to access the International Action Plan for the species.

Reference:

Arcos, J.M., David García, D., Oro, D., Genovart, M.& Louzao, M. 2015.  Keeping an eye on Balearic Shearwater.  Birdseye 22(7).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 August 2015