2023 Whitley Award Winner, Yuliana Bedolla out in the field. 
WFN Trustee Sir David Attenborough said that the work of conservationists has never been more urgent: “We need the work of Whitley Award winners to succeed and to help them to whatever extent possible.”

Mexican conservationist Yuliana Bedolla has been recognised by the UK charity Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) with a 2023 Whitley Award for her work safeguarding important seabird colonies from invasive mammals at key nesting sites on Mexico’s islands (click here). Watch a video of her work and award here.

The £40 000 award was presented to Yuliana by WFN Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, at a ceremony held at The Royal Geographical Society in London on Wednesday 26 April. The ceremony marked the 30th Anniversary of the Whitley Fund for Nature.

As Project Director of the environmental organisation, Grupo de Ecología y Conservación del Islas, Yuliana will use the funding to boost the role of local women and fishing cooperatives in conservation activities on two islands, Natividad and San Benito Oeste, which are key nesting sites for the nocturnal Black-vented Shearwater Puffinus opisthomelas and Black Storm Petrel Hydrobates melani. San Benito Oeste has a resident population of 10-60 people while Natividad is home to 302.

The programme will strengthen seabird monitoring and protocols to prevent accidental introduction of invasive mammals, particularly cats and rodents, which have decimated at least 27 seabird colonies in the region in the past. 

Local fishing cooperatives will be actively involved in implementing biosecurity protocols and training will be provided to women from local communities to prevent, detect and respond to invasive species and will equip them with the tools to sustainably finance their locally-led conservation work on the islands in future. 

Local fishing cooperatives will be involved in the conservation project. Yuliana believes community involvement in conservation is paramount: “For conservation to succeed, the local communities must be empowered as the stewards of their land and resources.” 

Mexican islands and their surrounding seas provide important breeding grounds and are crucial habitats for one-third of the world’s seabird species. The Baja California Pacific Islands are key nesting sites for 23 seabird species, 11 of which are nocturnal when breeding. 

“After our interventions, 20 seabird colonies have returned to nest and several new colonies have been formed… recording a new colony that we have never seen before or a pair of a species that historically nested there is a huge motivation,” said Yuliana. “I stay positive because I have seen over the years that with commitment and perseverance, it is not too late to take action, that we can still make a difference.”

Yuliana and Grupo de Ecología y Conservación del Islas have also been involved in conservation work with the small breeding populations of ACAP-listed and Near Threatened Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis found on the Baja California Pacific Islands of Guadalupe, Alijos, Clarión and San Benedicto.

ACAP congratulates Yuliana on her award and thanks her for her tireless efforts and unwavering passion in the conservation of the world’s most threatened group of birds – seabirds. 

28 April 2023

 A colour-banded Black-browed Albatross stands over its chick on Bird Island in the South Atlantic. Photograph by Erin Taylor, poster design by Bree Forrer

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement has three official languages: English, French and Spanish. These are the native languages of 11 of the 13 Parties to the Agreement. The two exceptions are Brazil, with its home language of Portuguese, and Norway, where there are two official languages: Norwegian and Sámi. Both countries are non-breeding Parties (although Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus once bred on Norway’s Bouvet Island in the Southern Ocean). Although none of the 31 ACAP-listed species visits the territorial waters or Exclusive Economic Zone of mainland Norway, at least 11 listed species have been recorded within the waters surrounding Brazil according to that Country’s National Plan of Action – Seabirds. Six of these can be considered regular visitors in reasonable numbers as shown by distribution maps in the NPOA-Seabirds.

Today we are pleased to release the set of 12 photo posters for World Albatross Day on 19 June this year, already available in the official languages, in Portuguese (click here). It is intended over the next six weeks to produce a set of WAD2024 artwork posters, based on selected paintings made for ACAP’s use by members of Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) as part of its Project #43 earlier this year. These will also be produced in Portuguese.

Infographic design by Namasri Niumim

In adition to the posters released today, ACAP has so far produced two of its ACAP Species Infographics in Portuguese, as well as in the three official ACAP languages. These are for the Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris and the Tristan Albatross Diomedea exulans. It is intended to produce Portuguese versions for the other four regular visitors to Brazil - the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross T. chlororhynchos and the Southern Giant, Spectacled Procellaria conspicillata and White-chinned P. aequinoctialis Petrels. Sponsorships have been found for the three petrels, and it is planned to produce infographics for them during the second half of this year.

For the last four years, ACAP has also been making a Portuguese version of its World Albatross logo (click here for 2023). Further, it is hoped that the six regular Brazilian visitors named above can also have their texts in the ACAP Species Summary series translated into Portuguese this year, so watch this space for them.

A Spectacled Petrel at sea off Brazil, photograph from Projeto Albatroz. The ACAP Species Summary for the ‘Ringeye’ is planned to be translated into Portuguese

Two other Portuguese-speaking countries are regularly visited by ACAP-listed species. These are Angola where is southern waters are known to be visited by a number of them, notably Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses and White-chinned Petrels (click here), both at risk to local fisheries, and Portugal where the Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus is a regular non-breeding visitor to its coastal waters, where it is at risk to longline and net fisheries (click here). ACAP-listed species have also been recorded as vagrants within the southern waters off Portuguese-speaking Mozambique, including the Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross T. carteri and the White-chinned Petrel. Additionally, although it is well outside the normal ranges of all the ACAP-listed species, Cabo Verde off the west coast of Africa supports breeding petrels and shearwaters, actively conducting conservation research on them (click here).

It is hoped the ACAP products described above that are being produced in Portuguese can be used to increase awareness of the conservation plight being faced by albatrosses and petrels, and aid Brazil and other Portuguese-speaking nations in celebrating World Albatross Day come 19 June.

With grateful thanks for translations provided by Brazilian Patricia Serafini, Co-convenor of ACAP’s Population and Conservation Status Working Group.

Reference:

Neves, T., Olmos, F., Peppes, F. & Mohr, L.V. 2006. National Plan of Action for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (NPOA-Seabirds Brazil). Threatened Species Series No. 2. Brasilia: Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Renewable Resources. 122 pp.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 27 April 2023

A Newell's Shearwater chick; photograph by Andre Raine. According to the study, Newell's Shearwater populations decreased significantly on Kaua'i from the 1980's, only stabilising from approximately 2012

David Ainley (H.T. Harvey & Associates Ecological Consultants, California, USA) and colleagues have published in the journal Marine Ornithology on multi-decadal population trends of five seabird species of the Hawaiian Island, Kaua'i.

The paper’s abstract follows, 

“Population trends of seabirds nesting on Kaua‘i in the Hawaiian Islands, USA, were assessed across four decades using data from the Save Our Shearwaters (SOS) program. Started in 1979, the SOS database was intended to track the incidence of attraction of Kaua‘i's seabirds to artificial lights, but recovery rate data also became useful to index population trends. These data documented precipitous declines of Newell's Shearwater Puffinus newelli through 2017. Here we expand on those efforts by including four additional species and consider data to 2018. All five species exhibited increasing trends during SOS's first decade, coincidental with increasing human population, suburban infrastructure, and public awareness. Counts of the once-numerous Newell's Shearwater decreased sharply beginning in the late 1980s, but stabilized around 2012. Since that approximate time, counts of Wedge-tailed Shearwater Ardenna pacifica and White-tailed Tropicbird Phaethon lepturus have increased. Conversely, counts of Hawaiian Petrel Pterodroma sandwichensis and Band-rumped Storm Petrel Hydrobates castro have remained stable since 1990. The implications of sizable decreases in a population are rarely considered from a community ecology perspective, but in this case, such an examination is possible: the decline of Newell's Shearwater may have led to a competitive release of trophic resources and nesting habitat, benefitting Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and White-tailed Tropicbirds, respectively. We also explore other issues potentially explaining observed trends. Clearly the SOS program is an important contributor to the success of both seabird conservation, by rehabilitating seabirds grounded by artificial lights, and management, by documenting long-term population changes that would have otherwise been unknown.”

Reference:

Ainley, D., Schneider, S. & Spencer, G. 2023. Disparate decadal trends in Kaua'i seabird populations: possible effects of resource competition and anthropogenic impacts. Marine Ornithology 51: 47 – 54

26 April 2023

Bird's-eye view - A miniature video camera mounted on the back of a Wandering Albatross gives new insight into their flight

Stefan Schoombie (Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation, University of Cape Town, South Africa) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series on dynamic soaring by globally Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans utilizing an array of sophisticated bio-logging devices.

Look out below! Wandering Albatrosses are incredible flyers, but their landings are less graceful, often resulting in comical scenes for onlookers from below

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans are among the largest flying birds. Their energy-efficient dynamic soaring flight allows them to travel large distances by exploiting the gradient in wind strength above the sea surface. We used bio-logging devices to study the dynamic soaring flight behaviour of wandering albatrosses, deriving roll (bank) angles from video and tri-axial magnetometers, and flapping events from tri-axial accelerometers. Albatrosses mostly experienced westerly winds coming from their left during outbound flights from their colonies and from their right when returning. They compensated for differences in wind speed by varying their roll angles and predominantly turning into the wind, resulting in a net displacement that was perpendicular to the wind. Flapping flight was influenced by wind speed and direction, with birds spending more time flapping in light winds and in head winds. Flapping often occurred at the upper turn of the dynamic soaring cycle, a stage previously considered devoid of flapping. There was also evidence of sexual differences in flight behaviour, with females flapping less than males. Males almost exclusively take off into head winds, whereas females utilized cross winds as well. These results add to our knowledge of dynamic soaring and show how albatrosses react to their wind fields at a fine scale.”

Comfort in the air. Wandering Albatrosses uses their large wingspan to glide through the air using a flight mode called dynamic soaring, where they expend very little energy and can travel immense distances in favourable wind. However, when the wind is light they have to flap their wings from time to time, which uses a lot more energy

With thanks to Stefan Schoombie for his photographs and for writing the captions.

Reference:

Schoombie, S., Wilson, R.P. & Ryan, P.G. 2023.  Wind driven effects on the fine-scale flight behaviour of dynamic soaring wandering albatrosses. Marine Ecology Progress Series doi.org/10.3354/meps14265.

Note:  Now retired as ACAP Information Officer to an emeritus position, I am largely restricting my contributions to the Agreement to the ACAP Monthly Missives series, completion of the ACAP Species Infographic series, and for this year, leading in the build up to the fourth World Albatross Day on 19 June. However, from time to time I will “help out” with a post to ACAP Latest News as here, where it is a pleasure to report on a publication coming from Marion Island where I conducted and managed research on ACAP-listed species for several decades.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 25 April 2023