The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s Azwianewi Makhado represented South Africa at the 2024 ACAP meetings in Peru, reporting on progress with the Mouse-Free Marion Project, photograph by Bree Forrer

The international Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) holds annual meetings of its 13 Parties.  This year the ACAP Advisory Committee and two of its three working groups met in Lima, Peru during August.  At the Eighth Meeting of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group (PaCSWG8), South Africa tabled an Information Paper that gave an update on the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project.

Co-authored by Dr Anton Wolfaardt (MFM Project Manager) and Dr Azwianewi (Newi) Makhado (Oceans & Coasts, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment), the Information Paper was presented at the working group meeting by Newi, who is a PaCSWG and Advisory Committee Member, as well as being South Africa’s National Contact Point for ACAP.

Co-convenors Marco Favero (Argentina), Richard Philips (United Kingdom) and Patricia Serafini (Brazil) in Peru at the Eighth Meeting of ACAP’s Population and Conservation Status Working Group, photograph by Bree Forrer

The MFM Project’s Information Paper (PaCSWG8 Inf 07) describes progress, challenges, and lessons learned from other aerial baiting campaigns relevant to the planned eradication of introduced House Mice from Marion Island.  This includes information from baiting trials and the recent failure of baiting campaigns on Midway (United States) and Gough (United Kingdom) Islands.  The paper states that further trials will be conducted on Marion to examine the performance of baits and the distribution of mice in different habitats.  Undertaking additional trials and recommended investigations will impact both the project's timelines and budget.  Nevertheless, these adjustments are deemed not only justifiable but essential to better understand and mitigate project risks and optimize the likelihood of achieving a successful outcome in this once-off operation.

Attendees at the Eighth Meeting of ACAP’s Population and Conservation Status Working Group, Lima, Peru, 9 August 2024, photograph by Bree Forrer

PaCSWG8, in its report to the 14th Meeting of the ACAP Advisory Committee (AC14) that followed in Peru, welcomed the update and the continued work to complete this important eradication project.  It also encouraged the submission of a report to the next meeting, so important lessons for the planning of eradication attempts are shared globally, including about unsuccessful programmes.  The Advisory Committee Work Programme for 2023 - 2025 (AC 14 Doc. 22) includes a review and update of ACAP’s eradication guidelines (last updated in 2019), in which South Africa will participate during the intersessional period.

The Agreement had previously endorsed the MFM Project at its 2023 meetings held in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The MFM Project is gratified to receive renewed international support from the Parties to the Agreement, noting that it comes from all the nations that support breeding populations of those species of albatrosses and petrels that are known, or are thought, to be impacted by Marion Island’s House Mice.

The MFM Project will continue to report on its progress to the annual meetings of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement as it works towards the eradication of the island’s “killer” mice.

With thanks to Newi Makhado.

Co-published on the Mouse-Free Marion Project website.

References:

Advisory Committee, Secretariat 2024.  Advisory Committee Work Programme 2023 – 2025. Fourteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Lima, Peru, 12 – 16 August 2024.  AC14 Doc 22.  15 pp.

Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels 2023.  Report of the Thirteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 22-26 May.  68 pp.

Phillips, R.A. 2019.  Guidelines for Eradication of Introduced Mammals from Breeding Sites of ACAP-listed seabirds.  Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  10 pp.

Population and Conservation Status Working Group 2023.  Report of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group.  Thirteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2-6 May 2023.  AC13 Doc 09.  43 pp.

Population and Conservation Status Working Group 2024.  Report of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group.  Fourteenth Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Lima, Peru, 12-16 August 2024.  AC14 Doc 14 Rev 2.  41 pp.

Wolfaardt, A. & Makhado, A. 2023.  The Mouse-Free Marion Project.  Seventh Meeting of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 18-19 May 2023.  PaCSWG7 Inf 05.  5 pp.

Wolfaardt, A. & Makhado, A. 2024.  An Update on the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project.  Eighth Meeting of the Population and Conservation Status Working Group, Lima, Peru, 9 August 2024.  PaCSWG8 Inf 07.  3 pp.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 10 September 2024

Flesh-footed Shearwater, hand-coloured lithograph by John Gerard Keulemans, from the Monograph of the Petrels (Tubinares), 1907-10, Plate 32, by Frederick du Cane Godman

Alexander Bond (Bird Group, The Natural History Museum, Tring, UK) and Jennifer Lavers have written in the journal Ibis International Journal of Avian Science suggesting a new name for the Near Threatened Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes, noting the bias in equating flesh-coloured with the predominant human skin colour of those that originally assigned the name.  They write: “The default assumption that flesh equates with a whiteness reflects a northern European influence and racism”.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Recently, there has been increased focus on the origins and history of common names for organisms, especially birds.  Of particular interest are eponymous common names that reflect our colonial past.  While identification of alternative names can be straightforward for some species, for those that migrate across jurisdictions including the lands of multiple Traditional Owner/Indigenous groups, reaching consensus on a single name that reflects the features of the species and their cultural importance can be substantially more complex.  Using the migratory Ardenna carneipes as a case study, we propose a new common name (Sable Shearwater) for the species and discuss the many challenges that others will need to consider when navigating this important yet sensitive space.”

A previous  ACAP Monthly Missive  on the sensibilities of retaining eponymous names (e.g. for Buller’s Albatross Thalassarche bulleri) also referred to Ardenna carnepeis, saying:

“As well as wishing to discard all North American eponymous bird names, the OAS Committee has singled out the name of the Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes for special opprobrium, writing that “the word flesh may imply that all - or at least “normal” - skin resembles that of white people.  To suggest that the default skin tone is that of a white person is inherently an exclusionary standard”.  The committee recommends the epithet “Pale-footed” be used instead.  This is of at least potential interest to the Albatross and Petrel Agreement because at a 2019 meeting New Zealand indicated it was considering the merit of nominating the shearwater for ACAP listing, although since then there seems to have been little progress to develop a proposal (click here).  New Zealand Birds Online has Pale-footed Shearwater as an alternative name (along with the Maori name Toanui), so this could be seen as a relatively easy change, and one for ACAP to consider adopting.”

If and when ACAP formally considers the shearwater for listing, then it might also wish to consider “Sable Shearwater” as a common name for the species in the English language.

Reference:

Bond, A.L. & Lavers, J.L. 2024.  A feathered past: colonial influences on bird naming practices, and a new common name for Ardenna carneipes (Gould 1844).  Ibis International Journal of Avian Science doi.org/10.1111/ibi.13356.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 05 September 2024, updated 06 September 2024

Rae Okawa of Native Hawaii Designs.has designed what is described as a “tribal mōlī poster” to support the conservation of Kauai’s Mōlī or Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis, as well as the use the of Hawaii’s indigenous language.  Each symbol depicted on the poster is given its meaning in the Hawaiian and Polynesian cultures.  In addition, Rae Okawa has produced a logo to a similar design which aims to raise funds for the Kaua’i Albatross Network from the sale of clothing and tote bags.

The network’s Mission states that “The Kaua‘i Albatross Network is dedicated to helping preserve the vitality of the Laysan Albatross and promoting safe habitat on which this magnificent bird depends.”

Design by Rae Okawa

It is intended to write an article for the ACAP Monthly Missive series on the usage of native languages and names in the conservation of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels and their breeding sites.  The indigenous languages of Hawaii (Ōlelo Hawai’i, an official state language since 1978) and New Zealand (te reo Māori a national official language since 1987) are prominent in this regard, but there are other examples of the use of local names in Chile’s Juan Fernández Islands, Spain’s Balearic Islands and the United Kingdom’s Tristan da Cunha Islands.

With thanks to Hob Osterlund, Kaua‘i Albatross Network and Fellow, Safina Center.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 04 September 2024

Sketches of the great albatross seen off Ireland, drawing by John Lynch

Those species of albatrosses whose homes fall within the southern hemisphere are rarely recorded outside of it; the less windy and prey-poor tropical seas being considered-too much of a barrier to their crossing the equator and venturing farther north.  Nevertheless, isolated individuals of several species do get seen at sea from time to time, or even on or over land, in the northern hemisphere (click here for an ACAP Latest News 2010 compilation).  In the North Atlantic it is the Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris that is most commonly observed, with sometimes multiple sightings of what is most likely the same individual; a recent record being of an adult seen off Iceland.  There are also a few records of Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses T. chlororhynchos north of the equator in the Atlantic.

 Less common are North Atlantic sightings of a great albatross of the genus Diomedea, making the recent report of one seen (and sketched) off the coast of Ireland noteworthy.  The following account by John Lynch is from the online news service BirdGuides.

“The remnants of Hurricane Ernesto were due to hit south-west Ireland on the evening of Wednesday 21 August.  After finishing work, I drove with some anticipation to Seven Heads, a promontory to the east of Leganagh Point in Co Cork that myself and some local birders have been pioneering as access to other headlands in the area has become difficult.

When I was 2 km from the site, a message in the Cork Rare Birds WhatsApp Group announced that Dennis O'Sullivan had an albatross species at 5.23 pm heading west from Ballycotton, which is 57 km to the east. Within 15 minutes I had met local birder Ronan O'Driscoll at the watchpoint. We discussed Dennis's find and the possibility that the bird could potentially pass Seven Heads, so we commenced scanning east towards the Old Head of Kinsale.

The wind was blowing from the south-west at a F6 and light conditions were good, with the Old Head lighthouse visible some 12.5 km to the east. There was a light breaking swell over which there was a steady westerly moving passage of Manx Shearwaters interspersed with Cory's Shearwaters and some Northern Fulmars.

Seven Heads seawatch point, with Cotton Rock foreground and the Old Head of Kinsale some 12.5 km to the east, photograph by John Lynch

The minutes passed and at 5.55 pm I was checking through a feeding flock of manxies [Manx Shearwaters] approximately 500 m offshore when a bird rose and banked vertically in front and above the flock presenting its full underside.

I thought: 'What the … this bird is huge!'  My first impression was of long, extended gleaming-white underwing, with black-bordered secondaries, primaries and to a lesser extent the inner wing arm and outer wing hand. The hand of the outer wing was swept back and tipped black.

I shouted 'albatross' to Ronan, followed by 'it's got a pink bill'. The bill was huge and really stood out. As the light caught the bird I noted how clean the underside and head were. 'I have to get a photo,' I thought, and I reached for the camera hoping the bird would pass in front of us. I couldn't pick the bird up, though.

'OK, focus on getting details,' I thought, as I dropped the camera and reverted back to the 'scope, quickly connecting with the bird as it completed a towering arc and presented its back. I could clearly make out that the head, mantle, rump and tail were white and the white of the mantle extended onto the lesser and median coverts. The rest of the wing, including the greater coverts, primaries and secondaries was black and flecked with white, which was primarily confined to the coverts. The intergrading of the white on the coverts with the dark Diomedea areas looked blotchy, spotted and rough.

What was now clearly an albatross species was completing slow towering arcs and as I shouted directions to Ronan he connected as it broke the horizon. On reaching the top of an arc I could see the wings were slightly arched and, coupled with the size of the bird, the thought that 'this bird looks like a hang glider' ran through my head!

Both Ronan and I watched as the bird completed six or seven towering arcs from the sea surface to above the horizon, slowly making its way in a southerly direction out to sea, until it was finally lost to view. The total observation time was about seven to nine minutes and both of us concurred that in all this time we hadn't see the bird flap once!

I sent out a message that read 'albatross sp past Seven Heads 5.55 pm' and called Dennis. Given the distance and time this was not Dennis's bird, which had a dark underwing and he identified D. dabbenena as an immature Black-browed Albatross.

It was clear Ronan and myself needed to take notes and read reference guides as I suspected this was one of the 'great albatrosses' of the genus. We discussed our notes on Thursday morning and concluded that this was an adult male from the wandering albatross species complex.”

Without photographs (as in this example), or the reading of a individually numbered leg band or morphometric measurements (which requires the bird in the hand), it is not feasible to identify the Irish great albatross to species, but it seems most likely to be either a Tristan D. dabbenena from Gough Island, or a Wandering D. exulans from South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)¹, farther south.

¹A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur e Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

References:

Cuthbert, R.J., Phillips, R.A. & Ryan, P.G. 2003.  Separating the Tristan Albatross and the Wandering Albatross using morphometric measurements.  Waterbirds 26: 338-344.

Ryan, P.[G.] 2000.  Separating albatrosses.  Tristan or Wandering?  Africa – Birds & Birding August/September 5(4): 35-39.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 03 September 2024