Bonn, 2 September 2011 - ACAP’s Advisory Committee working groups met in Guayaquil (Ecuador) to discuss issues related to seabird bycatch, breeding sites and status and trends.

Bycatch in Seabirds

The meeting of the Seabirds Bycatch Working Group of the Agreement of Albatrosses and Petrels took place in Guayaquil (Ecuador) the 22-24 August and was chaired by Barry Baker, CMS Appointed Scientific Councillor for bycatch. The group assessed the global impact of bycatch of seabirds in longline fisheries and reviewed a number of research papers on mitigation measures.

Between 160,000 and 320,000 seabirds are killed every year. Most of them are albatross and petrel species listed on Annex 1 of the Agreement. Compared with data collected in the 1990’s, there is evidence of substantially reduced bycatch in some key fisheries. Decreased fishing efforts as well as greater and more effective use of technical mitigation measures, notably in demersal and pelagic longline fisheries are a major reason.

The Working Group concluded that the three best practice mitigation methods are night setting, branch line weighting and bird scaring lines. Combining these methods would be the best way to reduce bycatch. Delineating areas of high concentrations of albatrosses and petrels with a high death toll in pelagic longline fisheries and where the most rigorous seabird bycatch mitigation should be required.

In this context, the CMS representative highlighted the Secretariat’s comprehensive review on the impact of gillnets on marine mammals, sea turtles, sharks and seabirds. The results will be presented at the CMS COP in November 2011 in Norway.

Considering the huge scale of South American fisheries counting 6,000 motorized vessels in Brazil, some 15,000 in Chile, more than 15,000 in Ecuador and 10,000 in Peru, artisanal fisheries was considered as a serious threat. Even very low mortality rates can have serious detrimental effects on species such as the Critically Endangered Waved Albatross. Socio-economic factors and the development of alternative mitigation methods need to be taken into considered to address this threat

Breeding Sites, Status and Trends

The working groups on Breeding Sites and Status and Trends met on 25-26 August to review the most recent information on population status and trends that has been made available to ACAP by the Parties.

At present, there are 248 islands where populations of ACAP species breed. 571 populations of the listed 29 ACAP species with 2.95 million pairs breed on 141 “island groups” every year. The rarest of the ACAP species remains the Critically Endangered Amsterdam albatross with 32 pairs only whilst the most abundant is the Vulnerable White-chinned Petrel with 1 million pairs.

BirdLife International will review the status of all ACAP species in 2012. It will work with ACAP to towards using the up-to-date data to re-assess populations. As a result, information provided to the MoP in 2012 shall be broadly consistent with the BLI assessment for the IUCN Red List later in the year.

The joint Working Groups expressed concern for species with a dramatic decline in global populations, especially the Tristan and Antipodean Albatrosses for which over 90% of the global populations are in decline. More than 50 percent of the populations of Wandering Albatross and Black-browed Albatrosses are also in decline.

However, there a positive trend has been recorded for other species: Seven ACAP species with at least 50 percent of global populations are increasing in numbers. These include the three North Pacific albatrosses, the Amsterdam, Shy, and Southern Giant Petrels, most of which are now recovering from major historical reductions in population size.

Habitat destruction and predation by introduced mammals are major threats to breeding sites of ACAP species. Predation by feral cats, black and brown rats, and habitat destruction by reindeer affecting the breeding sites are most serious. The Burrow-nesting grey Petrel and White-chinned Petrel were mainly concerned.

After acute septicaemia emerged in 2010 killing 1000 adult Black-browed Albatrosses call for more research into infectious diseases of albatrosses and petrels.

ACAP members from Argentina, Australia, Chile, Ecuador, France, New Zealand, South Africa, Uruguay and the UK, plus BirdLife International and observers from a wide range of government and non government agencies attended the working groups.