A Wandering Albatross about to make a sea landing in stormy weather, by ABUN artist Maureen Bennetts for ACAP; after a photograph by Dimas Gianuca

Elham Nourani (Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell, Germany) and colleagues have posted open access in the preprint server BioRxiv on how seabirds, including two albatross species, behave under extreme wind conditions at sea.

The preprint’s summary follows:

“Flying seabirds are adapted for windy environments. Despite this, storms can cause widespread strandings and wrecks, demonstrating that these seabirds are not always able to avoid or compensate for extreme conditions. The maximum wind speeds that birds can operate in should vary with morphology and flight style, but this has been hard to quantify due to the challenges of collecting data during infrequent events. Yet this information is crucial for predicting how seabirds are impacted by and respond to extreme events, which are expected to increase in intensity and frequency under climate change. We analyzed > 300,000 hours of tracking data from 18 seabird species, representing all major seabird guilds in terms of flight style. We quantified the range of wind speeds that seabirds use during their foraging trips in relation to the wind speeds available, and assessed evidence for avoidance of particular wind conditions. The maximum wind speeds that birds flew in increased with wing loading, in line with general aeronautical predictions. Two species of albatross flew in extreme winds > 23 m s^-1. Within the 18 species studied, we found no general preference or avoidance of specific wind speeds. Nonetheless, in a very small number of instances, albatrosses avoided speeds below their operable maxima, demonstrating that even the most wind-adapted birds avoid extreme speeds in particular scenarios. The Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross and the wandering albatross avoided the maximum wind speeds by flying towards and tracking the eye of the storm. Extreme winds therefore might pose context-dependent risks to seabirds, and there is a need for more information on the factors that determine the of risk, given the impact of global change on storm intensity.”

Reference:

Nourani, E., Safi, K., de Grissac, S., Anderson, D.J., Cole, N.C., Fell, A., Grémillet, D., Lerma, M., McKee, J.L. Pichegru, L., Provost, P., Rattenborg, N.C., Ryan, P.G., Santos, C.D., Schoombie, S., Tatayah, V., Weimerskirch, H., Wikelski, M. & Shepard, E.L.C. 2022.  Extreme tolerable winds for seabirds are determined by morphology.  Bioxiv doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.02.490292 .

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 May 2022

Discards anyone?  Black-browed Albatrosses gather en masse behind a South Atlantic trawler; photograph by Graham Parker

Amanda Kuepfer (South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute) and colleagues have published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science on the impacts fishery discards are having on the natural foraging conditions for Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris populations breeding in the South Atlantic.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Fishery discards supplement food for many seabirds, but the impacts of declining discards are poorly understood. Discards may be beneficial for some populations but have negative impacts by increasing bycatch risk or because they are junk-food. The Falkland Islands support > 70% of global black-browed albatross Thalassarche melanophris populations, which feed on discards. However, the effect of discards on population demographics, and implications of fishery management changes, are unknown. We analysed stomach contents of black-browed albatross chicks across eight breeding seasons (2004–2020) from New Island, Falkland Islands, to assess variation in discard consumption and how this relates to foraging conditions and breeding success. Across years, 68%–98% of samples contained natural prey, whilst 23%–88% of samples contained fishery discards. Discard consumption was positively related to fishery catches of hoki Macruronus magellanicus and sea surface temperature anomalies SSTA (°C), and negatively related to breeding success. These results suggest a diet-switching behaviour for Falkland Islands albatrosses, whereby birds switch from preferred natural prey to suboptimal discards when environmental conditions, and hence natural feeding opportunities, are unfavourable. Crucially, this study highlights that fishery discards do not compensate for poor natural foraging conditions for breeding albatrosses in the long term.”

With thanks to Amanda Kuepfer, South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute.

Reference:

Kuepfer, A., Votier, S.C., Sherley, R.B., Ventura, F., Matias, R., Anderson, O., Brickle, P., Arkhipkin, A. & Catry, P. 2022.  Prey-switching to fishery discards does not compensate for poor natural foraging conditions in breeding albatross.  ICES Journal of Marine Science doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac069.

Bree Forrer, ACAP Communications Advisor & John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 May 2022

“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