An opportunity has arisen with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation for a Senior International Policy Advisor to join the team to progress the Department's international seabird work.

The position is described in the Department’s advertisement as follows:

“This is a rare and exciting opportunity to champion conservation through international collaboration and policy negotiations. The primary focus of this role is addressing international threats to seabirds. Seabirds are amongst the most threatened group of birds globally, particularly albatrosses and petrels. New Zealand is a global seabird hotspot, and ninety percent of them are in trouble (threatened or at risk of extinction).

Many of our threatened taonga seabirds are highly migratory and face imminent danger in waters beyond our jurisdiction, either in the high seas or in coastal waters or other range states. Addressing bycatch risks and other at-sea threats across the range of seabirds is vital to fully realise the conservation benefits from investment made domestically in breeding site and domestic fisheries management.

Ideally, you'll be looking to take the next step in your career to broaden your international focus and experience. Working alongside subject matter experts, you'll support the implementation of our bycatch mitigation strategy.  There will also be opportunities to support the team's wider international engagement functions.

This is a true engagement role where whanaungatanga will be a foundation principle throughout your mahi. You'll join a passionate advisory team and work closely alongside key partners including our internal policy and technical teams, whānau, hapū and iwi, government agencies and other international and domestic stakeholders working together to support the delivery of the Government's international conservation obligations.

This role requires the ability and willingness to travel internationally for meetings and in some cases, to attend virtual international meetings at night. If you're not based in Wellington, let us know in your cover letter where you'd prefer to be based.”

Applications close on the 19^th of July. 

The complete Position Description can be found here: https://careers.doc.govt.nz/jobs/DOC-600021006WLG.

12 July 2023 

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement has renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC).

The renewal reaffirms each organisation's commitment “to facilitate cooperation between the IATTC and the ACAP Secretariat with a view to supporting efforts to minimise the incidental by-catch of albatrosses and petrels listed in Annex 1 of ACAP within the IATTC Convention Area.”

A map from the IATTC website indicates the IATTC Convention Area

The MoU promotes cooperation between the organisations in the following areas:

1. development of systems for collecting and analysing data, and exchanging information concerning the bycatch of albatrosses and petrels in the IATTC Convention Area;
2. exchange of information regarding management approaches directly or indirectly relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels;
3. implementation of education and awareness programmes for fishers who operate in areas where albatrosses and petrels may be encountered;
4. design, testing and implementation of albatross and petrel bycatch mitigation measures relevant to fishing operations in the IATTC Convention Area;
5. development of training programmes on conservation techniques and measures to mitigate threats affecting albatrosses and petrels;
6. exchange of expertise, techniques and knowledge relevant to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels in the IATTC Convention Area; and
7. reciprocal participation with observer status at the relevant meetings of ACAP and IATTC.

ACAP’s Executive Secretary Dr Christine Bogle and IATTC Senior Policy Advisor, Jean-François Pulvenis signed the MoU earlier this year in May. First signed in July 2011, the MoU has now been renewed with a clause to automatically extend every six-years unless the Participants decide otherwise.

10 July 2023

Fig. 1 from the paper: Spatial coverage of the data across the Antarctic. Number of alien species records across the Antarctic and Southern Ocean region. Values and point size indicate the total number of unique alien species or other taxon records per locality. Shaded points indicate the proportion of records currently listed as present (extant) at each locality (purple), versus the proportion of records with an uncertain or absent occurrence status in blue. Point sizes are log-scaled and constrained by a minimum size for localities with fewer than five records, for display. Localities without records with a present occurrence status in the dataset listed in grey text.

Rachel I. Leihy (Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria, Australia) and colleagues have published open access in the journal scientific data on introduced and invasive species of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean Islands.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Open data on biological invasions are particularly critical in regions that are co-governed and/or where multiple independent parties have responsibility for preventing and controlling invasive alien species. The Antarctic is one such region where, in spite of multiple examples of invasion policy and management success, open, centralised data are not yet available. This dataset provides current and comprehensive information available on the identity, localities, establishment, eradication status, dates of introduction, habitat, and evidence of impact of known introduced and invasive alien species for the terrestrial and freshwater Antarctic and Southern Ocean region. It includes 3066 records for 1204 taxa and 36 individual localities. The evidence indicates that close to half of these species are not having an invasive impact, and that ~ 13% of records are of species considered locally invasive. The data are provided using current biodiversity and invasive alien species data and terminology standards. They provide a baseline for updating and maintaining the foundational knowledge needed to halt the rapidly growing risk of biological invasion in the region.”

Reference:

Leihy, R.I., Peake, L., Clarke, D.A. et al. Introduced and invasive alien species of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean Islands. Sci Data 10, 200 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02113-2

07 July 2023

A grounded Buller’s Albatross fledgling held by Kayne Merwood prior to its release on World Albatross Day, photograph by Bridget Preece, Kopi Bush Retreat

The New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) team of rangers based on Rēkohu/Wharekauri/Chatham Islands has reported of a globally Near Threatened and nationally Endemic and Declining Buller’s Albatross Thalassarche bulleri fledgling landing on the main Chatham Island during the night of 18 June and then being rescued and released the next day on World Albatross Day . The team’s report on its Facebook page follows:

“Last Monday was World Albatross Day and, as if on cue, they began to fall from the sky with our office getting three reports in as many days of juvenile Buller’s mollymawks/hōpo/toroa crash landed on roads or farms where they are vulnerable to vehicles and dogs. In May/June each year these fledgling birds are taking their first flight from Rakitchu/Rangitatahi/The Sisters and Motchu Hara/Motuhara/Forty-Fours. Luckily for these birds some very thoughtful and caring members of the community were on hand and got in touch with our team. With the help of rangers and even assistance from our awesome local fire brigade they were relocated to high, windy spots to have a chance at relaunching. Hopefully they’ll be back in about 12 years’ time to have chicks of their own.”

This fledgling Buller’s Albatross was found on a Chatham Island road at night and then released from a sea cliff, photographs by Bernadette Lim, Chatham Volunteer Fire Brigade

ACAP Latest News reached out to Gemma Green, DOC Ranger (biodiversity) on the Chatham Islands for some more details. In reply, she tells ALN that so far this breeding season five fledgling Buller’s Albatrosses have become grounded on Chatham Island, rescued, and then released on high ground or from sea cliff edges where they will more easily be able to take flight. She writes that they hear of one or two fledgling Buller’s Albatrosses each year although they might not all get found or reported to us. “This year seemed to be particularly bad, maybe due to the unseasonably light easterlies we had over the past couple of weeks. It’s gone back to more normal strong winds now so hopefully no more.”

DOC marine ornithologist, Graeme Taylor says that there have been reports in the past of one or two Northern Buller’s Albatrosses T. bulleri platei showing up grounded on beaches around the northern end of the main Chatham Island and mostly in June which is the month they fledge. These have been assumed to have come off The Sisters where the northern subspecies breeds as the winds are typically northerly or westerly at the Chatham Islands and this direction would blow birds from The Sisters up on the northern beaches. But with the easterly winds this season’s grounded birds are just as likely to have come from the Forty-Fours which are well out to the east of the main island.

With The Sisters being c. 16 km away from the main Chatham Island the situation appears similar to that of occasional fledglings of the Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross T. carteri from South Africa’s Prince Edward Island being recorded ashore on Marion Island – where the species does not breed – at a distance of 22 km (click here). The Forty-Fours are about three times as distant at 50 km, so it may be the crash-landed albatrosses more usually came from The Sisters under the influence of the prevailing westerly winds.

The presumed Campbell Albatross ashore on Chatham in 2007, photograph from Graeme Taylor

Graeme Taylor adds that back in April 2007 a presumed Campbell Albatross T. impavida (Vulnerable) was found on the road near the Chatham Island’s DOC office. It was a recently fledged juvenile but separating them at that age from Black-browed Albatrosses T. melanophris (Least Concern) is problematic because both then have dark eyes.

With thanks to Gemma Green and Graeme Taylor, New Zealand Department of Conservation.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 06 July 2023