by Charl de Villiers

 

THE tide may at last be turning in the battle to save globally imperiled Southern Hemisphere albatross and petrel populations from irreversible decline due to unchecked longline fishing and other threats. One of the most significant milestones yet has involved negotations towards an agreement that will co-ordinate international efforts to conserve albatrosses and petrels in the Southern Hemisphere. Meeting under the auspices of the Bonn Convention on the conservation of migratory species, over 50 delegates and observers from 17 countries were expected to gather in Cape Town from 27 January to 2 February to resume talks that had started in Hobart, Tasmania, in June last year.

 

Up to 26 albatross and petrel species were in danger of extinction unless "firm steps" were taken to reverse the destructive effects of uncontrolled longline fishing, pollution, habitat degradation, human disturbance of breeding sites, and introduced diseases and predators, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said in a statement. Appendix II of the Bonn Convention provides for the listing of species – such as albatrosses and petrels – that have an unfavourable conservation status and would benefit from international cooperation. All 21 species of Southern Hemisphere albatrosses – including the five that breed on South Africa’s Prince Edward Islands – are listed under Appendix II, as are seven Southern Hemisphere petrel species, four of which breed on the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands. A draft action plan to coordinate Southern Hemisphere seabird conservation efforts would be one of the key items for deliberations by delegates representing seabird range states and distant-water fishing nations that interacted with albatrosses and petrels.

 

According to the Australian Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Robert Hill, the 12 countries present at the Hobart negotiations – including South Africa – had shown "overwhelming support" for a draft albatross agreement. Speaking after the Hobart talks, Senator Hill remarked that scientists at the negotiations had estimated that approximately 1000 seabirds had been killed during each day of the meeting by longline fishing alone. Estimates by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) suggested that, in the three fishing seasons leading up to 1999, over 100000 albatrosses and petrels had been killed in the Patagonian toothfish fishery in the Southern Ocean alone. Illegal, unlicensed or unregulated "pirate" vessels – especially those operating in and around South Africa’s Prince Edward Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EZZ) – have been responsible for most of the incidential seabird mortalities, as well as the near-collapse of the highly lucrative toothfish fishery.

 

Welcoming the Cape Town seabird negotiations, Dr Ian Macdonald, Chief Executive of the World Wide Fund For Nature South Africa, said WWF-SA urged all relevant governments to take what were already known to be appropriate remedial and preventative measures and to implement these "with absolute urgency". "WWF(SA) is extremely encouraged that all the relevant governments are meeting to work out practical steps to prevent the ongoing massacre of albatrosses and petrels as a result of incidental bycatch in the longline fishing industry in the Southern Ocean," he added.

Dr Denzil Miller, head of the South African delegation to the Cape Town negotiations, said the reduction of potential fishing-related impacts on albatrosses and petrels around the Prince Edward Islands and in fishing grounds off South Africa was a "key concern". "The reversal of negative population trends among albatrosses and petrels is a major issue for South Africa. Consistent with our involvement in CCAMLR, we want to eliminate adverse impacts on seabird populations by implementation of a robust conservation strategy and national plan of action," he added.

Dr Peter Ryan, a seabird expert attached to UCT’s FitzPatrick Institute, said urgent steps were needed to reduce seabird bycatches within South African continental waters. "We’re right up there with the worst fisheries: based on the 1998-1999 fishing effort, an estimated 19000 to 30000 seabirds are killed annually by tuna longline fishing in the South African continental EEZ– of which 70 percent are albatrosses. "This in addition to the birds killed by the domestic hake longline fishery and toothfish fishing around the Prince Edward Islands," Dr Ryan said.

 

Albatrosses have the highest proportion of threatened species in any bird family, making them the most vulnerable and threatened of all seabirds. Of the 24 species of albatrosses, 21 species have shrinking populations, or have populations of unknown status. About 50 percent of albatross populations contain fewer than 100 breeding pairs, making albatrosses extremely susceptible to random events or even low levels of mortality. The irony is that it takes relatively straightforward – and proven – mitigatory measures to dramatically reduce the risk of longlining activities that could result in fatal interactions with foraging seabirds. Such measures include line-setting to be limited to the hours of darkness, adequate weighting of lines to maximise sinking rates, no dumping of offal during setting, minimising deck-lighting and using bird-scaring lines during setting. Marine observers on licensed vessels in the Prince Edward Island toothfish fishery – which are subject to stringent precautionary measures – reported an 87 percent reduction in seabird by-catches between 1997 and 1999.

 

The draft action plan under discussion at the Cape Town negotiations included conservation measures such as research and monitoring, reduction of fishery-induced deaths, eradication of non-native species (especially introduced predators such as rats and cats), reduction of disturbance and habitat loss, and reducing pollution. International seabird conservation efforts have developed along three broad fronts: most notably, BirdLife International’s Global Seabird Conservation Programme, the FAO’s International Plan of Action-Seabirds and inter-governmental negotiations under the auspices of the Bonn Convention. South African seabird and fisheries’ expertise is being fed directly into these processes from a range of sources that include universities, DEAT, Marine and Coastal Management and BirdLife South Africa’s co-sponsorship of the co-ordinator of its international programme, John Cooper of UCT’s Avian Demography Unit. Mr Cooper, was appointed Head of Secretariat for Agreement meeting in Cape Town by the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Mr Mohamed Valli Moosa. The meeting was sponsored by the Governments of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Additional support was also received from the African Seabird Group, WWF-SA and UCT.

COOPER, J. (ED.). 2000. Conservation of South African Albatrosses and Petrels at Risk from Longling – A BirdLife South Africa and South African National Antarctic Programme Workshop, Cape Town, 7 June 2000. Research Report No. 39, Avian Demography Unit, Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Cape Town, 27 pp.