The Pacific coast of South America gets its own newsletter to cover seabird bycatch at sea

The Albatross Task Force of BirdLife International working in Chile (ATF-Chile) has produced, along with its Ecuadorian and Peruvian ATF counterparts, two issues of its Spanish-language newsletter Boletín Pacífico Sur (click here).

The newsletter is edited by Luis Cabezas, Cristián Suazo and Oliver Yates and is is meant to be a conservation tool for the entire coast of the South Pacific. The newsletter is distributed within the fishing industry and to other groups related to the conservation of seabirds. Issue No. 3 is currently under production.

The first two issues carry articles on several ACAP-listed albatross and petrel species, on bycatch mitigation methods such as bird-scaring lines and on Chile’s Diego Ramirez Islands, where both Black-browed Thalassarche melanophris and Grey-headed T. chrysostoma Albatrosses breed.


Windswept Black-browed Albatrosses on Chile's Ildefonso Islands
Photograph by Graham Robertson

Starting the Pacific newsletter was inspired by the Spanish-language Atlántico sur Boletín, the newsletter of the Proyecto Albatros y Petreles - Uruguay on the Atlantic coast of South America that is produced by the ATF Uruguay team. To date there are nine issues, all available on-line.

“Publicación de divulgación de Albatross Task Force (editado por bATF-Chile, con colaboración de los equipos de Ecuador y Perúu) sobre las iniciativas en protección, mitigación e investigación de problemáticas de conservación en aves marinas y otras especies presentes en actividades pesqueras que se desarrollan en el Pacífico Sudoriental (Pacífico Sudamericano). Boletín dirigido a las personas vinculadas a la pesca y público en general.”

Click here to access other newsletters on procellariiform seabirds and bycatch issues around the World.

With thanks to Oliver Yates and Luis Cabezas of the BirdLife Albatross Task Force for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 February 2013

The Agreement on the
Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks to conserve listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by coordinating international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations.

About ACAP

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Hobart TAS 7000
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Email: secretariat@acap.aq
Tel: +61 3 6165 6674