“Lost in a Rising Sea” Black-footed Albatross by Kitty Harvill, after a photograph by Koa Matsuoka

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement has chosen the theme “Climate Change” to mark the third World Albatross Day, to be celebrated on 19 June 2022.  This follows the inaugural theme “Eradicating Island Pests” in 2020 and “Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries” last year.

The featured species chosen for 2022 are two of the three species of albatrosses that breed in the North Pacific: the Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and the Laysan P. immutabilis.  Both these globally Near Threatened albatrosses have most of their breeding populations on the low-lying atolls of the USA’s North-Western Hawaiian Islands.  These atolls - and their breeding seabirds - are all at risk from predicted sea level rise and increases in the number and severity of storms that result in flooding, both considered a consequence of climate change.  Storm floods have even caused at least one small sandy islet to disappear into the sea, losing breeding sites for several thousand albatross pairs (click here); elsewhere in the island chain, as on Midway Atoll, storms have caused flooding of albatross nests and loss of chicks close to the shore.

ACAP’s WAD poster designer, Michelle Risi, now based on Aldabra Atoll for two years after an extended stay on Gough Island, has produced eight posters featuring selected artworks produced by Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) in a collaboration with ACAP for World Albatross Day 2022.  The high resolution artwork posters have been made freely available from here for printing during the build up to World Albatross Day on 19 June.  French and Spanish versions are to follow.  ACAP requests it be acknowledged in their use for conservation purposes.  They should not be used for financial gain.  You can view them from here on this website and also in an ACAP Facebook album.

Also view the 12 photo posters produced by Michelle Risi for WAD2022.

With thanks to Michelle Risi and to ABUN artists Flávia Barreto, Georgia Feild, Kitty Harvill, Grace Innemee, Virginia Nicol, Ilana Nimz, Tatiana Petrova and Andrea Siemt, as well as to photographers Laurie Smaglick Johnson, Koa Matsuoka, J.A. Soriano and Lindsay Young.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 May 2022, updated 12 May 2022

Gaia Puleston, Australian Antarctic Division

Following the welcome address by Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC, the Governor of the State of Tasmania, the Seventh Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Agreement (MoP7), meeting virtually from Monday this week, appointed Ms Gaia Puleston of the Australian Delegation as Chair.  Following her appointment to the role she said: “I am looking forward to working with you all over this week to support of the objectives of the Agreement”.

Gaia Puleston has been General Manager, Policy & International in the Australian Antarctic Division, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment since September 2021.  Prior to joining the AAD she was Acting Assistant Secretary in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet where she deputised the national Climate Coordinator.  She has served in several Federal Government departments in Australia and abroad in Australian Missions in New York and Vienna for a number of years.

Gaia holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Asian Studies (Chinese), as well as a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice, all from the Australian National University in Canberra.

Gaia is the second woman to become a Chair of the ACAP Meeting of Parties, following Ms Gunn Paulsen who Chaired the Third Session (MoP3) in Norway in 2009.  Dr Mike Double, Chair of the ACAP Advisory Committee, and also from the Australian Antarctic Division, is acting as MoP7 Vice Chair.

With thanks to Kirsty Manning, Australian Antarctic Division.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 May 2022

 
Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC

The Seventh Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Agreement (MoP7) was opened on Monday 9 May by a welcome address from Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC, the Governor of the State of Tasmania.

The Governor, after extending a welcome to the 12 Parties present and all the Observers (click here) attending the virtual meeting, noted in her virtual address from Government House in Hobart that: “It has now been over 20 years since a small group of nations met in Canberra, Australia and signed the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  I congratulate you all for your shared commitment and successes in conserving albatrosses and petrels since then.  The signing of this Agreement represented a clear and cogent response to the shared concern among nations about the significant losses of albatrosses and petrels as a result of incidental mortality in fishing operations, and threats facing these species at their breeding sites.”

She went on to note Australia’s and Tasmania’s roles in conserving albatrosses and petrels since the commencement of the Agreement, saying:

“As an island continent, Australia is proud to be an ocean nation.  We recognise the importance to the biodiversity of Australia, and Tasmania in particular, of albatrosses and petrels.

• Australia is home to 24 [of 31] ACAP-listed albatross and petrel species, with eight of these species breeding within Australia's jurisdiction.
• Australia’s coastal and sub-Antarctic islands provide critical habitats for our breeding populations of albatrosses and petrels with Tasmania’s Albatross Island, The Mewstone and Pedra Branca being home to Australia’s only endemic albatross species, the Shy Albatross.

Australia is committed to the conservation, protection and recovery of its threatened albatross and petrel populations. This is illustrated by:

• the successful Macquarie Island pest eradication program, delivered jointly by the Australian and Tasmanian Governments, that has eliminated rabbits, rats and mice from this sub-Antarctic location, with the Island's flora and fauna now enjoying markedly improved conditions
• successive Threat Abatement Plans addressing the threat posed by longline fishing and marine debris to seabirds, and albatrosses and petrels in particular successive National Recovery Plans that aim to improve the conservation status of albatrosses and petrels so that these species are no longer threatened in Australia's jurisdiction.”

Government House, Hobart, Tasmania, built in 1857

Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC, the State of Tasmania’s 29th Governor, was sworn in at Government House in Hobart in June 2021. Two days previously she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for her service to the people of Tasmania through leading contributions to the law, to the judiciary and to the administration of justice, particularly in the area of family law, to professional legal organisations, and as a mentor and role model for young women.  The Governor graduated from the University of Tasmania in Hobart with a combined Arts/Law degree in 1980.  Her sporting achievements include playing hockey and tennis at state and national levels (read more here).

Her Excellency ended her address with the following words to the MoP7 attendees:

“The world is watching how you work together to conserve imperilled albatrosses and petrels.  The future of these species depends on your collective efforts.  I wish all participants at the Seventh Session of the Meeting of the Parties every success in ensuring there is a secure foundation upon which to advance the work of ACAP in the coming triennium.”

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 May 2022

 
Black-footed Albatross, by ABUN artist, Rosana Venturini for ACAP, black paper, coloured pencils and pan pastel; after a photograph by Lindsay Young

The Seventh Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Agreement (MoP7) will be held virtually next week over four days, commencing on Monday.  A provisional meeting schedule may be found online.  The MoP will be chaired by Australia, with Mike Double, Chair of the ACAP Advisory Committee, acting as Vice Chair.  It follows on from the meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee (AC12) and two of its working groups last year, also held virtually due to travel and other restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  ACAP last met in person at AC11 in Florianópolis, Brazil in 2019.  The previous Session of the Meeting of Parties (MoP6) was held in Skukuza, Kruger National Park, South Africa during May 2018.

Twelve of the 13 Parties to the Agreement are due to attend the MoP from their home countries or from their Australian embassies.  Observers at the meeting are expected to include Canada, United States of America, Chinese Taipei (attending as an APEC Member Economy), BirdLife International and Humane Society International; their observer reports are available online.  Other observers due to be present are Namibia, the Inter-American Sea Turtle Convention, the Australasian Seabird Group of BirdLife Australia, and the Brazilian NGO, Projeto Abatroz.  The ACAP Secretarial Staff will also be in attendance.

A provisional agenda for MoP7 includes hearing a report from AC12, itself reflecting reports from its Seabird Bycatch (SBWG10) and Population and Conservation Status (PaCSWG6) Working Groups, held over August/September last year.

All the documents pertaining to MoP7 are available in ACAP’s three official languages of English, French and Spanish from here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 May 2022, updated 09 May 2022