Balearic Shearwater, mixed media by Catarina Vitorino for ACAP, after a photograph by Pep Arcos

Iván Ramírez (Secretariat of the Convention on Migratory Species, Bonn, Germany) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Animal Conservation on a review of seabird bycatch in European waters.  Fisheries bycatch is considered the biggest threat to the ACAP-listed and Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus, endemic to European waters.

The paper’s abstract follows:

jEuropean species that demands urgent conservation and management action. Here, we present the first European review of seabird bycatch data, considering all fishing gears and data collection methods available in the region. We calculate seabird bycatch numbers per species, family, country and European marine region and assess the reliability of the data available. The cumulative bycatch estimate extracted from this review suggests that about 195,000 seabirds (ranging from around 130,000 to 380,000) are bycaught in European waters annually. The most affected seabird species is the Common Guillemot Uria aalge with over 31,000 birds killed per year. The marine region with the highest bycatch estimate is the Northeast Atlantic (over 115,000 seabirds year⁻¹). Gillnet fisheries are responsible for the highest bycatch levels, with over 95,000 seabirds year⁻¹, followed by longline fisheries. The families most affected by bycatch are Anatidae and Alcidae. These numbers are likely an underestimation since we were unable to find bycatch estimates, or to extrapolate estimates from available bycatch data for 12 (out of 34) European coastal states. Our assessment also identified significant data gaps in key areas such as Gran Sol (in the north-east Atlantic), the central and Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Combining systematic data collection with immediate implementation of mitigation measures will be crucial to fill in knowledge gaps, reduce current mortality levels and meet international conservation commitments such as those of the European Union and the Convention on Migratory Species”.

Read a popular account of the publication here.

Reference:

Ramírez, I., Mitchell, D., Vulcano, A., Rouxel, Y., Marchowski, D., Almeida, A., Arcos, M., Cortes, V., Lange, G., Morkūnas, J., Oliveira, N. & Paiva, V.H. 2024.   Seabird bycatch in European waters.  Animal Conservation  doi.org/10.1111/acv.12948.

05 July 2024

Australian Antarctic Division staffers celebrate ‘WAD2024’ outside their Kingston headquarters, reusing their 2021 banner

As in previous years, the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) marked World Albatross Day, this year with its theme of ‘Marine Protected Areas – Safeguarding our Oceans’, on 19 June with speeches, cakes and a group photograph at its Kingston Headquarters in Tasmania.

WAD2024 cakes with a Marine Protected Area theme by Andrea Polanowski (top) and Leonie Suter (below)

No ‘Bake-off’ competition was held this year, as in the past, but two ‘albicakes’ especially baked for the occasion by Andrea Polanowski and Leonie Suter, along with some other treats, were enjoyed.

Julie McInnes speaks to colleagues at the WAD2024 event

At the event, vertebrate biologist Julie McInnes spoke about World Albatross Day, providing an overview of its importance, mentioning some recent milestones, such as that it was now 10 years since the eradication of all the vertebrate pests on Macquarie Island and 30 years since  albatross monitoring was initiated on the island.  The WAD2024 Marine Protected Areas (MPA) theme was discussed in relation to the recently expanded Macquarie Island MPA and the current review of the Heard and MacDonald Islands MPA.  Julie also talked about the work the AAD is undertaking to collate at-sea tracking data for Macquarie Island seabirds and seals to ascertain how they are utilizing the MPA.  The need for more tracking data was then considered.  Julie is a member representing Australia of ACAP’s Population and Conservation Status, and Taxonomy Working Groups.

Aleks Terauds (left) and Kris Carlyon undertook a 10-day hike to the south of Macquarie Island this year to see the changes in the landscape, photograph by Pete Harmsen

Aleks Terauds, AAD spatial ecologist, spoke briefly about his recent visit to Macquarie and the vegetation on the island which he says was “looking incredible”, following its recovery after the eradication of vertebrate pests.  Read  an article here and watch a video featuring Aleks here about the island’s recovery.  Aleks has also been interviewed for radio.

Striking a pose.  Macquarie Island overwinterers with their WAD2024 banner, photograph from Melanie Wells

With thanks to Mandi Livesey and Julie McInnes, Australian Antarctic Division.

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

The Great Auk was once widely distributed across islands in the North Atlantic but became extinct due to excessive hunting by humans

Today is World Seabird Day.  Held on 3 July, it marks the date the now extinct Great Auk Pinguinis impennis was last seen alive in 1844.  The World Seabird Union, an organization comprised of the world’s seabird societies, announced the first annual World Seabird Day in 2017.

“Most seabird species are currently threatened by human activities, such as fisheries, oil pollution and climate change.  Seabird scientists and enthusiasts commemorate this date to raise awareness of the ongoing conservation threats to seabird populations.”

 
Wandering Albatross at sea, by April Grossruck of Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature for World Albatross Day 2020, after a photograph by Laurie Smaglick Johnson

Read a 2022 article marking World Seabird Day that concentrates on the threats albatrosses face from longline fisheries here.

03 July 2024

A 29-year-old male Wandering Albatross guards its chick near Prinsloomeer on South Africa's Marion Island on 17 April 2005; the bird was banded as a chick on 2 November 1976, photograph by John Cooper

The “great albatrosses” in the genus Diomedea can be divided into two groups, the two royal albatrosses, endemic to New Zealand and what can be called the “wandering-type group or complex” which is generally considered to be made up of four closely related (and hard to identify at sea) species.  These are the Amsterdam D. amsterdamensis, Antipodean D. antipodensis (with two subspecies, antipodensis and gibsoni), the Tristan D. dabbenena and the Wandering D. exulans.  A view exists that the two Antipodean subspecies should be afforded specific status.  D. a. gibsoni would then become known as Gibson’s Albatross.  Both these subspecies have also been described as “Antipodean Wandering” and Gibson’s Wandering” in the literature, with the Antipodean sensu lato being called the New Zealand Albatross.

The Wandering Albatross currently has no recognized subspecies.  Historically, D. e. chionoptera has been described as a subspecies of the Wandering Albatross (originally as a full species by Salvin in 1986), but is no longer recognized, making the species monotypic.  The taxon, used to describe the larger and generally whiter Wandering Albatrosses of the sub-Antarctic, became known as the Snowy Albatross.

Nowadays, “Snowy” seems to be mainly used on social media groups, often by seabird watchers who frequent “pelagic trips” in the southern hemisphere.  It is not used as a primary common name by most handbooks, scientific journals, the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), BirdLife International, IUCN and New Zealand Birds Online (although it is mentioned by some of them as an alternative common name).  However, it is used in some (but not all) recent field guides, by Wikipedia, eBird, in Cornell Lab’s online Birds of the World series and by the IOC World Bird List, thus perpetuating its use among birdwatchers.

A Wandering Albatross in the Drake Passage, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

To avoid too much confusion, I suggest that those who prefer to call the Wanderer a Snowy when writing in social media outlets and for non-scientific print publications, explain at first usage that they are referring to the Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans.  For scientific publications, handbooks and the like I suggest authors stick to using “Wandering” and avoid the term “Snowy”.

Selected Publications:

Bourne, W.R.P. 1989.  The evolution, classification and nomenclature of the great albatrosses. Le Gerfaut 79: 105-116.

Burg, T.M. & Croxall, J.P. 2004.  Global population structure and taxonomy of the Wandering Albatross species complex.  Molecular Ecology 13: 2345-2355.

Medway, D. 1993.  The identity of the Chocolate Albatross Diomedea spadicea Gmelin, 1789 and of the Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans of Linnaeus, 1758.  Notornis 40: 145-162.

Schodde, R., Tennyson, A.J.D., Groth, J.G., Lai, J.; Scofield, P. & Steinheimer, F.D. 2017.  Settling the name Diomedea exulans Linnaeus, 1758 for the Wandering Albatross by neotypification.  Zootaxa 4236 (1): 135.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 02 July 2024, updated 03 July 2024