Successful 2022 ACAP Secondment Applicant, Cristián Suazo, from Chile. ACAP Party, Argentina is hosting Cristián for his Secondment, titled: Multi-fishery interactions of sympatric black-browed and grey-headed albatrosses from the Diego Ramírez Islands: An isotopic and tracking approach

The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels invites applications for the 2023 round of its Small Grants and Secondment Programmes. 

Both programmes provide funding towards proposals that progress the Agreement’s objective to achieve and maintain a favourable conservation status for albatrosses and petrels. Additionally, Secondment proposals should aim to promote capacity-building within Parties.

At the recent Thirteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC13), the Committee identified several opportunities for small grants and secondments. Applicants are encouraged to put forward proposals clearly addressing tasks contained within the work programmes of the Advisory Committee (see Annex 4, AC13 Report) and Secretariat (see Annex 5, AC13 Report) as relevant.

The Agreement’s Working Group Convenors, the Advisory Committee Chair or Vice-chair, or the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. can be contacted to assist in determining ACAP priority areas for proposals.

Applications will only be accepted from ACAP Parties, but can involve collaboration with institutions or individuals based elsewhere. Applications can be completed in English, French or Spanish and should be submitted to relevant ACAP National Contact Points.

Applications close at 5pm on 3 October for Small Grant applications and on 17 October for Secondment applications.

The 2023 application forms, in all three ACAP official languages, are available to download here.

Find articles about previous ACAP Secondments, here.

04 September 2023

Figure 1 from the paper: Locations of each vessel conducted the experiment. Each dot represents each set the experiment was carried out.

A paper on an experiment involving the use of bird scaring lines on tuna longline fishing vessels in the North Pacific Ocean has been presented to the Scientific Committee Nineteenth Regular Session, Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, held in Koror, Palau, 16–24 August 2023. Presented by Dr. Kuo Ting-chun, the paper was the result of research carried out through a collaboration between Scott Pursner and Stephanie Prince, with support from Chinese Taipei's Fisheries Agency.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Many seabird species are facing a significant threat from the bycatch associated with longline fisheries. To mitigate this issue, bird-scaring lines, also known as tori lines, are commonly employed on tuna longline vessels to minimize seabird bycatch. While numerous tuna regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) have imposed regulations requiring the use of tori lines that adhere to specific specifications, no research has been conducted to assess the suitability of such regulations for Taiwanese tuna longline vessels. In order to address this knowledge gap, our study aimed to conduct experiments on three large vessels in the North Pacific Ocean to evaluate the effectiveness of internationally standardized tori lines in comparison to the lines made by the captains on these vessels.  The results indicated that the seabird bycatch per unit effort ranged from 0.07 to 0.63 birds per 1000 hooks per vessel. Using zero-inflated generalized linear mixed models, we identified that the probability of seabird bycatch increased in higher latitudes, while the bycatch rate was higher when using tori lines with the international standard than in the tori line made by the captains. This discrepancy may be attributed to the standard tori lines broke more frequently during the experiment. Based on the findings, we recommend the adoption of "O-Kuan" as the material for the main rope of the tori line, which is the same material used for the main fishing rope on Taiwanese vessels.  Additionally, we suggest retaining the dragging part of the line while reducing the total length of the tori line. Furthermore, we conducted measurements on the sinking rates of the hooks for the three experimental vessels, which ranged from 0.19 to 0.43 m/s.  Conducting further research to explore the sinking rate, while utilizing tori line to prevent seabird bycatch, would be valuable in establishing effective seabird mitigation practices for Taiwanese longline vessels.”

Reference:

Kuo, T.-C., Pursner, S., Prince, S., Gianuca, D. 2023. Tori line experiments on Taiwanese tuna longline fishing vessels in the North Pacific Ocean. Scientific Committee Nineteenth Regular Session, Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, Koror, Palau, 16–24 August 2023.  WCPFC-SC19-2023/EB. 16pp.

01 September 2023

Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi breeding in the mainland colony at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head on New Zealand’s South Island are intensively managed, inter alia by daily nest checks that allow age at fledging to be known for this globally Endangered and Nationally Vulnerable species The following news item with information from Department of Conservation Ranger, Sharyn Broni gives an example of an “early bird” fledgling that left the breeding colony well below the species’ average age.

The young fledgling, photograph by Hayden Parsons

“The first chick of the season fledged on 27 August. The chick has also set a new record as the youngest chick to fledge in the colony’s’ history at only 217 days old. The previous record for youngest fledging was 219 days and the average is 240 days. We think he fledged so early because he had really regular feedings from his parents, meaning he was in good condition and at a good weight, and perfect fledging conditions on Sunday with strong winds blowing him straight out to the ocean.

This is one of 20 chicks who received a GLS tracker [click here], so when he returns, we can see exactly where he's been. Now we await the other 32 chicks to fledge, making this a record season for the highest number of chicks fledged - current record is 30 chicks in 2021.

Information from the Facebook page of The Royal Albatross Centre.  Read more on the Department of Conservation website.

31 August 2023

Figure from the Statement. Map of the southern tip of South America and western Antarctica, indicating localities and island groups mentioned in the text. Notable locations in South America mentioned in the text are denoted by a red circle.

The OFFLU (WOAH/FAO Network of Expertise on Animal Influenza) ad-hoc group on HPAI H5 in wildlife of South America and Antarctica have released a statement on the spread of high pathogenicity avian influenza of the subtype H5 in South America. 

The spread of HPAI H5 virus across South America has been rapid and its effects on wild bird and mammal populations devastating. Since its detection in Columbia in October 2022, the virus has spread approximately 6,000 km in only three months, with the most southern detection having been reported in a South American sea lion at Puerto Williams, Chile. There is mounting concern that HPAI H5 virus will continue its southward trajectory and reach Antarctica and its offshore islands, posing a significant risk to wildlife. 

“This risk may be increased in coming months due to the spring migration of wild birds from South America to breeding sites in the Antarctic. The negative impact of HPAI H5 on Antarctic wild birds and mammal populations could be immense, both because of their likely susceptibility to mortality from this virus, and their occurrence in dense colonies of up to thousands of pinnipeds and hundreds of thousands of birds, allowing efficient virus transmission.”

Detection and response options such as surveillance and accurate documentation of HPAI-H5-associated mortality events, and following guidelines to reduce risk of human-mediated virus spread are outlined in the statement.

The full statement from OFFLU is available to download, here.

Reference:

Breed, A., Dewar, M., Dodyk, L., Kuiken, T., Matus, R., Serafini, P.P., Uhart, M., Vanstreels, R.E.T., Willie, M. 2023. Southward expansion of high pathogenicity avian influenza H5 in wildlife in South America: estimated impact on wildlife populations, and risk of incursion into Antarctica.

Disclaimer: This statement provides the point of view of independent OFFLU experts, and does not necessarily reflect the position of the parent organisations FAO and WOAH. 

30 August 2023