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Being surrounded and hence protected by the sea, islands are wondrous for wildlife as biodiversity thrives in these isolated landmasses. So, when humans affect them – often inadvertently – by introducing invasive species such as rats and mice to these self-contained habitats, the effects can be hugely damaging. Such activity on Marion Island led BirdLife South Africa to join with the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to establish the Mouse-Free Marion Project. Our partner has now added to its commitment to protect this globally significant island by joining the Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC) – a global initiative that aims to restore, rewild and protect islands, oceans and communities.

The largest of the two Prince Edward Islands located between Cape Town and Antarctica, Marion is home to a quarter of the world’s Wandering Albatrosses (categorised as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List) plus 27 other seabird species. It was and should be a haven for such wildlife, but invasive House Mice introduced by sealers in the early 1800s have devastated the ecosystem and now prey on seabirds. Their gruesome effects include eating the flesh of the native avifauna while the birds are still alive.

The IOCC aims to restore and rewild 40 globally significant islands worldwide by 2030, from sub-Antarctic islands such as Marion Island to tropical islands bursting with colourful marine life and coral. Restoring islands by removing invasive species is repeatedly proven to be one of the most impactful ways to restore biodiversity and island ecosystems. There have been more than 1,000 successful island invasive species eradications worldwide, resulting in long-term benefits including increased numbers of birds and native plants, recovery of natural ecosystem functions, protected and thriving reefs, and a more climate-resilient island.

The Mouse-Free Marion Project enjoys global support from five Patrons committing to save seabird populations on Marion Island. These are: His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, renowned conservationist and ornithologist Peter Harrison MBE, Japanese broadcaster Christel Takigawa, South African businesswoman and entrepreneur Gloria Serobe, and Antarctic scientist and conservationist Professor Steven Chown. Each will be working to highlight the urgent need to protect Marion Island and its seabirds in their respective countries and sectors, helping the Mouse-Free Marion Project go from strength to strength.

At 30,000 hectares, the removal of invasive house mice from Marion Island will be the largest rodent eradication project in the world to be undertaken in a single operation. The Mouse-Free Marion Project is also supported by BirdLife International, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and other conservation organisations.

To watch a short film about this globally important initiative, and to find out more about the Mouse-Free Marion Project, visit https://mousefreemarion.org/about-the-project/

Header image: Wandering Albatrosses on Marion Island. © Otto Whitehead

Mark D. Anderson (left – CEO of BirdLife South Africa) with HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (centre – Patron of the Mouse-Free Marion project) and Keith Springer (right – Mouse-Free Marion Operations Manager). © Culture Comms

“Islands are biodiversity hotspots and therefore provide a crucial focus of global conservation efforts. We have joined the IOCC to add impetus to international action restoring islands by tackling the important environmental issue of invasive alien species. Marion Island is home to two million seabirds, including four species of albatrosses and a range of other species including petrels, prions and penguins, several of which are threatened with extinction. It is vital that we remove the invasive mice, as otherwise Wandering Albatrosses – arguably the most iconic of the ocean-wandering seabirds – and the majority of Marion Island’s globally important seabirds, could become locally extinct.”

Mark D. Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, BirdLife South Africa

“Indigenous knowledge, combined with emerging science, shows us that everything is connected. Restoring and rewilding islands is not just an act of conservation; it is one of our most powerful defences building resiliency against climate change. By nurturing these ecosystems, we build stronger environments and help biodiversity hotspots like Marion Island to recover.”

Dr Penny Becker, Vice President Conservation at Island Conservation,
co-founder of the Island-Ocean Connection Challenge

Around 64% of the ocean’s surface (over 45% of the globe in total) falls within areas beyond the jurisdiction of any single country, and is often referred to as the high seas. With underwater mountains taller than Everest, the high seas offer a network of marine habitats that host a diverse array of species. However, resource exploitation and global climate change are driving biodiversity loss, placing the high seas under significant threat.

The high seas are a globally shared area governed by international law and policy. While many rules and regulations exist to try and tame this large frontier, none provide a framework to protect the rich biodiversity that lives within it.

“Whilst countries invest in protecting marine species within their own territories, these same species become threatened the minute they cross the border into the high seas, where they are no-one’s – but everyone’s – responsibility. We will therefore fail to safeguard the future of our planet without a framework to protect biodiversity in the high seas,” explains Carolina Hazin, Marine Policy Coordinator for BirdLife International.

That is, until now. In response to increasing concern about marine environments, the international community is currently negotiating a new agreement to protect biodiversity and improve governance in the high seas. The new agreement, which will set out an official legal framework for safeguarding our oceans, is expected to be one of the most significant steps towards ocean protection. On the 7th March 2022, countries resumed negotiations for the new agreement in New York, and discussions are expected to continue until the 18th March 2022.

“This new high seas treaty is the missing link for effective conservation of marine biodiversity. Imagine a jigsaw puzzle where you just have the outer pieces of the board, but none to fill in the middle,” says Hazin, who is currently attending the negotiations on behalf of BirdLife. “This is how marine biodiversity is currently governed. Unless we fill this large governance gap in the high seas, there will be no beautiful picture to look at in the future.”

However, despite the significance of this agreement, public awareness has not been forthcoming, and much like the high seas, the topic remains out of sight and out of mind. At present, a very small proportion of the high seas is protected, and limited surveillance of marine activities hinders compliance with existing regulations.

The new agreement will bring opportunities to establish high seas Marine Protected Areas and develop environmental impact assessments to help guide future resource use and limit exploitation. Importantly, it will underpin the international cooperation and coordination of activities in the high seas, for example coordinating with organizations managing the activities of the world’s fisheries. The agreement is of particular significance to seabirds like albatrosses and petrels, who can spend over half of their time wandering, feeding and resting on the high seas. Both albatrosses and petrels are amongst the most threatened seabird groups, largely due to unsustainable fishing practices in high seas fisheries.

BirdLife International is following the negotiations and calling on countries to adopt terms that promote effective protection and management of biodiversity through a network of Marine Protected Areas and other area-based management tools. Importantly, such areas should be established based on the best available science.

“The states negotiating the treaty have an immense responsibility in their hands. The high seas occupy almost half of the globe and we are watching biodiversity being threatened and lost right in front of our eyes. They are responsible for the future and fate of this blue planet, Earth,” concludes Hazin.

“This new high seas treaty is the missing link for effective conservation of marine biodiversity.”

Carolina Hazin, Marine Policy Coordinator, BirdLife International


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When it was first published by Croom Helm in 1983, the original Seabirds: an Identification Guide was a landmark volume. Written and illustrated by Peter Harrison, it was the first comprehensive guide of its kind and set the standard for a new era of family identification guides. This genre, still championed primarily by Helm, remains as popular as ever today, though this much-needed update is published by Lynx Edicions.

The definition of seabirds, as in the original volume, might be regarded as loose, but is justified in the opening section of the introduction. As well as albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, storm-petrels, diving-petrels, frigatebirds, cormorants, gannets, gulls, terns, skuas and auks, this book features seaducks, grebes, divers, pelicans and phalaropes – essentially, all species you might reasonably expect to encounter at some point in a marine or pelagic environment.

So what’s changed in 38 years? A great deal: our understanding of seabirds, their ranges, taxonomic relationships, identification and conservation has advanced significantly in recent decades. Reflecting taxonomic progress and a few discoveries, this new guide covers 433 species, compared to 312 in the original volume. Albatrosses, for example, have gone from 13 species to 22, and there are now 102 species of petrels, shearwaters and diving-petrels compared to 86 previously.

The treatment of these expanded families is reflected in the size of the new book, which runs to 600 pages compared to 448 previously, and a staggering 239 all-new plates featuring more than 3,800 individual figures, as against 88 plates with 1,600 figures in the original volume. Most are again painted by Peter Harrison in his distinctive style, but Hans Larsson has also contributed 93 plates for the gulls, terns, skimmers, skuas and seaducks – without exception they are superb, and must be among the best ever published for these groups.

The text is also excellent, presenting French, German and Spanish names as well as English and scientific names for each species, followed by comments on status and distribution, and then succinct but detailed sections on identification (with age differentiation as necessary) and confusion species. There are also colour distribution maps for the great majority of species, a few range-restricted taxa being the only exceptions.

The publisher has already created a list of the errors and corrections which can be accessed at www.lynxeds.com/errata-seabirds. So far the list is pleasingly short, but it includes a downloadable PDF of Plate 6 with corrected captions for Black and Common Scoters.

From a conservation perspective, this updated guide is an essential asset for accurately determining the identification and therefore distribution of many similar and often threatened species. These include, for example, a number of the ‘new’ albatross species so badly affected by longline fishing, the ‘split’ storm-petrels of Macaronesia, whose non-breeding ranges remain unknown, and the ‘New Caledonian Storm-petrel’, first seen as recently as 2008 and still awaiting formal description, but provisionally included at species level here and illustrated with six figures.

This volume is a masterful revision of the original classic, and likely to remain the primary seabird reference for many years to come. From professional ornithologists to seasoned sea-watchers, it should be required reading.

Reviewed by Dominic Mitchell

Above: South Polar Skua © Agami Photo Agency / Shutterstock


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As it shears effortlessly over the warm Mediterranean, a hungry Scopoli’s Shearwater suddenly aims for a single squid at the water’s surface. This excellent diver can usually go as deep as 28 metres underwater, but this time, something is off. Just as the seabird was expecting to savour the soft and juicy cephalopod, it feels a thick, cold metal hook gash through its throat. It turns out the squid was bait on a fishing line.

The shearwater is seriously hurt. It’s panicking. It needs to get out of the water, but the hook has now sunk, and won’t let it leave. To top it all off, sea water is now starting to fill its lungs. It’s too late. This shearwater has become yet another victim of seabird bycatch.

Bycatch occurs when fishing vessels accidentally catch seabirds and other marine life with their lines or nets. It is the single greatest threat that birds face at sea. Globally, seabirds have declined by 70 per cent in the past 50 years, and are currently one of the most threatened groups of birds in the world. They’re even one of the most threatened groups of all vertebrate animals.

Grim outlook

In Europe, the picture is particularly grim – far worse than is often appreciated. An estimated 200,000 seabirds are killed by bycatch every year. That’s 23 every hour. More than one every three minutes. That means that every time you brush your teeth, by the time you’re done, bycatch has killed yet another seabird.

As shocking as this figure may be, it doesn’t even tell the whole story. It mainly covers two types of fishing gear, longlines and gillnets, as there is a lack of information on bycatch from other types of fishing equipment. Longline fishing uses a long main line with baited hooks attached at intervals with shorter lines. Most victims of longline bycatch are attracted to the baited hooks when the gear is being set. They get hooked at the surface, and then dragged underwater, where they ultimately drown. Gillnets are large vertical nets that hang from a line floating on the surface and stretch deep into the water with a weighted bottom line. Here too, birds can get trapped underwater in the nets and end up drowning.

Above: A Yellow-legged Gull becomes the unintended victim of a fishing net. Photo © Stipe Surac

A typical feeding frenzy alongside a fishing boat © J M Arcos

What’s more, very few fishing boats have observers monitoring bycatch on board, and the enforcement of bycatch monitoring is very poor. In addition, the monitoring only counts seabirds that die. Many are injured and even maimed. Some are caught by fishing gear but escape before reaching the surface, so may go unnoticed. Some are captured alive.

If you’re ever on board a fishing boat and this happens, the first thing to do is to ensure the vessel slows down or stops. Then, the bird should be slowly hauled on board, and immobilised with a towel. The net should then carefully be removed, or the hook or line cut at the level of the mouth. If the bird is in bad condition, it will need to be taken to a wildlife rescue centre. Even if it doesn’t survive, scientists may still be able to gain valuable information from its body.

Timeline of death

Bycatch is a very recent phenomenon. Seabirds have always fed in the sea, but in the past, commercial fishing was nowhere near the level of today’s scale and intensity. Some seabirds are particularly vulnerable to bycatch because of the way they evolved. Take albatrosses, for example. Many do not breed before they are 10 years old, and produce no more than a single egg every one or two years. To compensate for this, they evolved into very long-lived creatures, with a low natural adult mortality, one individual even reaching the ripe age of 70.

The issue with these traits is that even small increases in adult mortality can result in population declines: and this is exactly the case with bycatch. Today, 15 of the world’s 22 albatross species are threatened with extinction. What was once an evolutionary advantage is now a risk. This is also the case for some of the closely related shearwaters. You might think that seabirds would evolve and adapt to bycatch, but the problem is that the speed of biological evolution is nowhere near as fast as industrial and technological advancement. The birds simply cannot keep up.

In the Mediterranean basin, certain common fishing practices increase the risk of bycatch: fishing at dawn, when it’s most likely that seabirds will be encountered; widespread longline fishing with baited hooks that attract birds; and the use of floating devices that make the hooks stay longer on the surface of the water.

Many species are at risk in the Mediterranean. Those most affected are Audouin’s Gull, Scopoli’s, Yelkouan, Cory’s and Balearic Shearwaters, European Shag and Northern Gannet. Balearic Shearwater, an endemic breeder in the Mediterranean, is classified as Critically Endangered, and bycatch is a true menace to the species, which is now threatened with extinction within the next 60 years.

Scopoli’s Shearwater, an endemic breeder in European waters, is directly impacted by fishing practices © Ali Şenel

The problem is not confined to southern Europe. In the Baltic Sea, the predicament of a range of different species is no less dire. Long-tailed Duck, Red-throated Diver, Common Guillemot, Great Cormorant and Velvet Scoter are all suffering immensely from the bycatch crisis. Every year in the Baltic, 76,000 birds are estimated to be killed by bycatch. And wintering birds have declined by more than 40 per cent in the last 30 years alone.

While seabirds remain its primary victims, bycatch harms many other animals, too. Sea turtles, marine mammals, sharks and rays are killed by bycatch every year in Europe’s waters. In the Mediterranean, a staggering 44,000 sea turtles are estimated to be killed each year.

Another group that bycatch is bad for, perhaps surprisingly, is the fishing community. They want to avoid it: it damages their fishing gear, slows down operations, and they just don’t want to harm wildlife. At BirdLife, we have been interviewing fishing crews from around Europe’s seas to learn about their relationship with nature and how they perceive bycatch. Here’s an extract of an interview from our Fish Tales series with Belhaj Aziz-M’diq, a 42-year-old Moroccan fisherman who works in the Mediterranean:

“Unfortunately, sometimes other animals get caught in our fishing nets. It might take some time, but it’s important for me to put them back in the water, to save them. Why? Because we need to protect marine biodiversity. Otherwise, we will create an imbalance. With climate change and pollution, human activities are already damaging marine life, so we try our best to respect the sea, and nature in general.”

This spirit of wanting to preserve nature’s balance is widely shared among the crew members we interviewed. Bycatch is a scourge. But the good news is that solutions exist.

How to prevent seabird bycatch

There are both practical and political solutions to help prevent bycatch. In particularly dangerous areas, authorities can relieve the pressure on wildlife by spatially restricting fishing operations, either temporarily or permanently. On top of saving seabirds, no-fishing zones would allow fish populations to replenish, which fishing communities desperately need in the long run.

It’s also necessary to end harmful subsidies. Shockingly, 20 billion euros in public money is spent globally every year to support destructive fishing. Some subsidies are even provided to fishing companies and vessels that engage in the degradation of marine habitats or forced labour, practices that must stop. One of the things that makes bycatch so tragic is that it is easy to avoid. Saving seabirds is possible, and it’s something that conservationists and those working in the fishing industry both want. It’s a question of priorities.


“With climate change and pollution, human activities are already damaging marine life, so we try our best to respect the sea, and nature in general.”

Belhaj Aziz-M’diq, Moroccan fisherman


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You’d think a Sei Whale would be hard to miss. But despite reaching 15 m long and 20 tons in weight, they can slip through the water leaving barely a ripple, and their lives remain a mystery to scientists and seafarers alike. So how has such a colossal mammal swum under the radar for so long?

Inevitably, much of the blame can be laid on humans. Around 200,000 Sei Whales were slaughtered in the mid-20th century in the southern hemisphere alone, driving the species to the brink of extinction. Today the Sei Whale is still globally Endangered, and much of what we know about it comes from data collected during the whaling period.

The gentle giant also moves in mysterious ways. In most parts of the world it inhabits deep, offshore areas, making it hard to track its global migration routes or behaviour. So imagine the delight of researchers from Falklands Conservation (BirdLife Partner) when they realised that the species was visiting the islands’ pristine coastal waters every summer and autumn, to feast on clouds of tiny crustaceans that swarmed in the area. This virtually unique situation gave them the chance to observe and study the species like never before.

Part of this research involved photographing the fins and flanks of the whales to keep track of the unique combination of nicks and scars that characterised each individual. The team has catalogued about 500 different Sei Whales to date, gaining fascinating glimpses into their individual lives.

A Sei Whale mother and calf © Christin Khan / NOAA

One whale, nicknamed ‘Wonky’ due to an unusually bent dorsal fin, was found to have travelled from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to the Falkland Islands, a straight-line journey of over 3,300 km in six months. This is one of the first insights into the migration destinations of this species. Another whale was sighted in 2019 and again in 2020, the second time accompanied by a young calf. This mother was dubbed ‘Moana’ in a Sei Whale naming contest run on the Falklands Conservation Facebook page to raise awareness of the vital site.

The recognition doesn’t end there, though. Thanks to years of research, the islands have now been confirmed as a Key Biodiversity Area, making them a globally important hotspot for recovering Sei Whale populations. In a poetic twist, the area borders a former whaling station now owned by Falklands Conservation.

Dr Caroline Weir, Sei Whale project lead for Falklands Conservation, says: “We are incredibly proud of achieving this Key Biodiversity Area for Endangered Sei Whales, which is the culmination of five years of pioneering and challenging field research. It has really highlighted the importance of the Falkland Islands for this poorly-known species. It’s a privilege to work in an area where whale populations appear to be thriving, and fantastic to now see that work translating into global recognition and contributing to the future conservation of these amazing animals.”

“It’s a privilege to work in an area where whale populations appear to be thriving.”

Dr Caroline Weir, Sei Whale project lead, Falklands Conservation


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Par Lewis Kihumba

La Journée mondiale de la tortue de mer est célébrée le 16 juin de chaque année afin de mettre en lumière et de sensibiliser le public aux tortues de mer et aux menaces qui pèsent sur elles. Dans le monde entier, les tortues de mer sont de plus en plus menacées. Six des sept espèces tortues de mer sont désormais classées comme vulnérables, en danger ou en danger critique d’extinction sur la liste rouge de l’Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature (UICN).

Les principales menaces sont la pollution, le braconnage et les captures accidentelles ou accessoires lors des activités de pêche. Selon l’Organisation des Nations unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO), les prises accidentelles constituent la principale menace : on estime à 300 000 le nombre de tortues de mer prises accidentellement dans les pêcheries mondiales. Cette menace est illustrée par la triste histoire d’une tortue caouanne baptisée Thunderbird.

Au mois de juillet 2020, Thunderbird a été retrouvée empêtrée dans un engin de pêche abandonné en Méditerranée. La tortue a été sauvée et emmenée dans un centre de secours. Elle a été équipée d’une balise satellite pour suivre ses mouvements avant d’être libérée. Les chercheurs ont ensuite suivi la tortue depuis le détroit de Gibraltar jusqu’à la côte ouest de l’Afrique.

« Il y a beaucoup d’activités de pêche non réglementées et/ou non durables au large de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, et nous travaillons avec des partenaires locaux et des sociétés de pêche pour adapter les engins et les méthodes de pêche afin de minimiser les prises accessoires de tortues de mer »

Ahmed Diame, Bycatch Project Manager

Thunderbird a été trouvé empêtré dans un engin de pêche abandonné en Méditerranée © Save the Med Foundation

« Nous lui avons attaché une balise satellitaire avant de la libérer le 11 août, ce qui nous a permis de suivre son épopée de 6 000 km à travers la Méditerranée occidentale et les eaux au large de l’Afrique occidentale. Cette tortue nous a surpris en traversant le détroit de Gibraltar, une zone difficile en raison de ses forts courants et de la forte densité du trafic maritime, ce qui pourrait entraîner un risque élevé de percussion par des bateaux », a déclaré David March, des universités d’Exeter et de Barcelone, qui a participé à ce suivi.

En février 2021, Thunderbird se trouvait au large des côtes sénégalaises, mais le signal de sa balise est devenu erratique. Le 17 mars 2021, la tortue se trouvait sur terre ferme, près du port de Dakar. Après avoir vérifié que la batterie et le capteur de la balise fonctionnaient correctement, la dernière position a été référencée avec les données du portail Global Fishing Watch, qui indiquaient que cette position était proche d’un lieu de pêche utilisé par les chalutiers, ce qui pourrait indiquer qu’elle a été capturée accidentellement par un navire de pêche.

Thunderbird a été équipé d’une balise satellite et relâché après son rétablissement © Save the Med Foundation

« Nous avons découvert que le dernier plongeon enregistré par la balise satellite se trouvait près d’un lieu de pêche utilisé par des chalutiers. Tout cela suggère que la tortue a été pris (capturée par accident) par un navire de pêche et ramenée au port. Nous ne savons pas si Thunderbird a été relâchée vivante après sa capture, ou si elle est morte à la suite de cette prise accidentelle », ajoute March.

Actuellement, les chercheurs utilisent des données satellitaires et travaillent avec des partenaires au Sénégal pour retrouver le bateau qui a capturé la tortue, dans l’espoir d’avoir plus d’informations sur le sort de Thunderbird.

L’Afrique de l’Ouest est l’une des zones de pêche les plus riches du monde, la région qui fournit un cinquième des prises mondiales de poissons, et inévitablement de nombreuses incidences de prises accessoires. Depuis 2017, BirdLife International en collaboration avec des partenaires nationaux et internationaux a eu pour objectif d’établir un cadre opérationnel pour réduire les prises accidentelles de tortues marines dans les pêcheries industrielles d’Afrique de l’Ouest. Le projet financé par la Fondation MAVA comporte cinq piliers clés, à savoir, le renforcement de la recherche et des capacités scientifiques, le renforcement des programmes d’observateurs, le plaidoyer pour la législation et les mesures d’atténuation, la sensibilisation et l’information du public, en plus de la durabilité et des partenariats.

« Il y a beaucoup d’activités de pêche non réglementées et/ou non durables au large de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, et nous travaillons avec des partenaires locaux et des sociétés de pêche pour adapter les engins et les méthodes de pêche afin de minimiser les prises accessoires de tortues de mer », a noté Ahmed Diame, responsable du projet sur les prises accessoires, chez BirdLife Afrique.

« Nous identifions également les principaux points chauds de la pêche – comme la zone où Thunderbird a été capturé ». Grace aux les informations recueillies par les observateurs à bord des navires de pêche industrielle et les données de suivi des tortues marines, nous serons en mesure d’identifier les principales zones et périodes à risque pour les espèces capturées accidentellement lors des activités de pêche », ajoute Diame.

Comprendre les impacts spatiaux et temporels des différents types de pêche sur les populations de tortues marines est crucial pour la mise en place des stratégies de conservation durables. C’est dans cette optique que le projet a permis de mieux comprendre l’ampleur des prises accidentelles en Afrique de l’Ouest.

Un élément clé du projet est le renforcement des capacités par la mise en place de formations pour les observateurs de la pêche. Ces formations permettent aux observateurs d’acquérir des compétences sur l’identification des tortues de mer, les meilleures pratiques de manipulation des tortues de mer, les techniques d’atténuation des prises accidentelles de tortues de mer et les protocoles de collecte de données sur les prises accidentelles. Du 31 mai au 04 juin 2021, l’équipe a organisé une formation régionale à Somone, au Sénégal, à laquelle ont participé 13 observateurs des pêches et gestionnaires de données sur les prises accidentelles de Mauritanie, Gambie, Cap vert, Guinée, Guinée Bissau et Sierra Leone. Cette formation s’inscrivait dans le cadre des efforts visant à établir un réseau de formateurs nationaux dans les différents pays concernés.   

« Ces interventions contribueront à la conservation des tortues de mer. À l’occasion de la Journée mondiale de la tortue de mer, nous devons agir rapidement pour sauver ces créatures majestueuses qui sont menacées », conclut M. Diame.

Formation à l’identification des tortues marines pour les observateurs de pêche © Elena Serra

Thunderbird a été marqué dans le cadre du programme, « Tortues océanographiques », un programme conjoint du Système d’observation et de prévision côtière des îles Baléares (SOCIB) , Alnitak, Fondation Palma Aquarium et de l’Université d’Exeter, avec le soutien de la NOAA NMFS. Pour en savoir plus sur le voyage de Thunderbird, cliquez ici


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By Lewis Kihumba

World Sea Turtle Day is celebrated on 16th June every year to highlight and raise awareness about sea turtles, and the threats facing them. Across the world, sea turtles are increasingly threatened, with six out of the seven sea turtles, now classified as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Leading threats include pollution, poaching, and accidental catches or bycatch during fishing activities. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), bycatch is the leading threat with an estimated 300,000 sea turtles accidentally caught in world fisheries. This threat is espoused by the sad story of a loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) christened Thunderbird.

In July 2020, Thunderbird was found entangled by abandoned fishing gear in the Mediterranean. The turtle was saved and taken to a rescue centre. It was fitted with a satellite tag to track its movement and freed. Researchers then tracked the turtle from the Strait of Gibraltar to the West coast of Africa.

« Il y a beaucoup d’activités de pêche non réglementées et/ou non durables au large de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, et nous travaillons avec des partenaires locaux et des sociétés de pêche pour adapter les engins et les méthodes de pêche afin de minimiser les prises accessoires de tortues de mer »

Ahmed Diame, Bycatch Project Manager

Thunderbird a été trouvé empêtré dans un engin de pêche abandonné en Méditerranée © Save the Med Foundation

“We attached a satellite tag before she was released on 11 August, which allowed us to track her epic journey of 6,000 km through the Western Mediterranean and the waters off West Africa. This turtle surprised us by crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, a challenging area because of its strong currents and high density of marine traffic, which could result in a high risk of boat collision”, said David March of the Universities of Exeter and Barcelona who was involved in this tracking.

By February 2021, the Thunderbird was off the coast of Senegal however, the signal from its tag became erratic with the final position on 17th March 2021, showing the turtle on land, near the port of Dakar. After checking that the battery and tag sensor were working correctly, the last position was referenced with data from the Global Fishing Watch portal, that indicated this position was near a fishing ground used by trawlers, possibly indicating that it was unintentionally caught by a fishing vessel.

Thunderbird a été équipé d’une balise satellite et relâché après son rétablissement © Save the Med Foundation

“We found out that the last dive recorded by the satellite tag was near a fishing ground used by trawlers. All this suggests the turtle was bycaught (caught by accident) by a fishing vessel and taken back to the port. We don´t know if Thunderbird was released alive after capture, or died as consequence of the bycatch event”, adds March.

Currently, researchers are using satellite data and working with partners in Senegal to find the boat that caught the turtle, in the hope of finding out more information about the fate of Thunderbird

West Africa is one of the world’s richest fishing grounds, with the region providing one fifth of the world global fish catch, and inevitably numerous bycatch incidences. Since 2017, BirdLife International in collaboration with national and international partners aimed at establishing an operational framework for reducing the incidental catches of sea turtles in West Africa’s industrial fisheries. The project funded by the MAVA Foundation has five key pillars namely strengthening research and scientific capacity, strengthening observer programmes, advocacy for legislation & mitigation measures, awareness and public outreach, in addition to sustainability and partnerships.

“There is a lot of unregulated and/or unsustainable fishing activities off West Africa, and we are working with local partners and fishing companies to adapt fishing gear and methods to minimise bycatch of sea turtles,” noted Ahmed Diame, Bycatch Project Manager, at BirdLife Africa.

“We are also identifying the main fishing hotspots – such as the area where Thunderbird was caught. With the information collected by observers onboard industrial fishing vessels and the sea turtle tracking data, we will be able to identify the key risk areas and periods for species bycaught during fishing activities’’, adds Diame.

Understanding the spatial and temporal impacts of different types of fisheries on marine turtle populations is crucial in order to implement sustainable conservation strategies. Consequently, the project has enabled a better understanding of the scale of bycatch occurrences in West Africa.

A key component of the project is capacity building through carrying out trainings for fisheries observers. These trainings provide to observers with skills on sea turtle identification, sea turtle handling best practices, sea turtle bycatch mitigation techniques, and bycatch data collection protocols. From May 31st to June 04th 2021, the team held a regional training in Somone, Senegal, where 13 fisheries observers and bycatch data managers from Mauritania, Gambia, Cabo Verde, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Sierra Leone participated. The training was part of the efforts to establish a network of national trainers in the different involved countries.

“These conservation interventions will be instrumental in helping conserve sea turtles. As we mark World Sea Turtle Day, we must act with speed to save these majestic creatures which are threatened,” concludes Diame.

Formation à l’identification des tortues marines pour les observateurs de pêche © Elena Serra

Thunderbird a été marqué dans le cadre du programme, « Tortues océanographiques », un programme conjoint du Système d’observation et de prévision côtière des îles Baléares (SOCIB) , Alnitak, Fondation Palma Aquarium et de l’Université d’Exeter, avec le soutien de la NOAA NMFS. Thunderbird was tagged within the framework of “Oceanographic turtles”, a joint programme by the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB), Alnitak, Palma Aquarium Foundation and the University of Exeter, with the support of NOAA NMFS. Find out more about Thunderbird’s journey here


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By Jeanette Smith

The African Penguin Spheniscus demersus (Endangered) population is decreasing rapidly, primarily due to a lack of food. A shift in fish stocks away from historic feeding grounds on the west coast as well as competition with the fishing industry have meant that African Penguins breeding on the west coast of South Africa especially, are struggling to find food. Penguins have been unable to follow the changed prey distribution because of a lack of safe breeding sites along the southern Cape coast. A small colony of penguins established at the De Hoop Nature Reserve in 2003 but predation by caracal caused them to abandon the colony a few years later. 

When in 2015, BirdLife South Africa (BirdLife partner) began investigating whether it would be possible to establish new African Penguin colonies, the De Hoop colony was chosen as an ideal candidate site. In partnership with CapeNature, BirdLife South Africa designed and constructed a predator-proof fence to ensure that, this time, the penguins would be safe. To entice penguins to re-colonise the area naturally, life-like penguin decoys and penguin calls being broadcast by loudspeakers help create the impression that penguins are breeding there.

After waiting two years to test whether natural colonisation would happen, the BirdLife South Africa and CapeNature approached the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) to assist with taking the next step, which is to release penguins at the colony. The first release took place on 11 June.

The African Penguin population is decreasing rapidly, primarily due to a lack of food.

he juvenile African Penguins wait to be released after arriving at the De Hoop Nature Reserve © David Roberts/SANCCOB

“This release, which will hopefully be the first of many, is the culmination of many years of work so I’m immensely excited to see it finally happening!” says Christina Hagen, the Pamela Isdell Fellow of Penguin Conservation at BirdLife South Africa, who has been running the project since 2015. “Although there are more years of hard work ahead of us, it is an important step to take now, as every year we wait, we lose more and more penguins.” continues Hagen.

CapeNature CEO, Dr Razeena Omar confirms the value of this partnership, saying “CapeNature is proud to be part of this innovative project on one of our flagship protected areas, De Hoop Nature Reserve. It is critical that we reverse the decline of the endangered African Penguin, and the release of the rehabilitated fledglings is an important next step in achieving the goal of establishing a colony.”

The penguins were carried closer to the sea in boxes © David Roberts/SANCCOB

The released penguins were hand-reared at SANCCOB; most hatched from abandoned eggs rescued at the Stony Point penguin colony and incubated at the organisation’s Table View facility. Dr David Roberts, Clinical Veterinarian at SANCCOB, says, “We received an unusually large number of African penguin eggs earlier this year and it was a tall task to hand-rear so many chicks at once. Events like this one indicate the trouble that African penguins are in when extreme weather conditions and lack of food cause adult birds to abandon their nests to save themselves”.

According to Roberts, “The penguins are released as fledglings as they have not yet chosen a place to breed and once an African penguin starts breeding at a colony, they return there year after year. By releasing fledglings, we hoped that they will return to De Hoop Nature Reserve to breed when they are ready to do so in three to six years.”

In addition to the released birds being individually marked with Passive Integrated Transponders for post-release monitoring, two African penguins will be fitted with GPS trackers to monitor their movements immediately after release.

“We are grateful to our partners, CapeNature and SANCCOB, and all the donors who have made this work possible, particularly Pamela Isdell, the Patron of the African Penguin” says Mark D. Anderson, CEO of BirdLife South Africa. “This is a vital step towards re-establishing this colony and will improve the conservation status of our iconic penguin.” 

he penguins instinctively knew that they needed to go to sea © Alistair McInnes/BirdLife South Africa

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By Alan Munro, International Marine Policy Project Officer, RSPB (Birdlife in the UK)

Everyone loves a good news story! And boy do we have one…hold on tight.

After over a decade of work with the country’s fishing industry and fisheries managers, the Albatross Task Force (ATF) in Namibia are celebrating a major conservation success. A new paper hot off the press shows that seabird deaths in the Namibian demersal longline fishery have been reduced by 98%. That equates to 22,000 birds saved every year! Yes, you read that right. What a win.

This achievement is thanks to effective government regulation and dedicated grassroots engagement with the industry by our dedicated team of seabird bycatch instructors, including Titus Shaanika (read an interview with Titus) and team leader Samantha Matjila. The Task Force engage directly with the fishing industry and demonstrate the simple measures that can prevent birds being caught on longline fishing hooks or killed by collisions with the thick steel cables that haul trawl nets through the water.

One of the Task Force’s first jobs was to establish the scale of the seabird bycatch issue in Namibia. The results were rather shocking: Namibia’s hake trawl and longline fisheries were found to be among the world’s deadliest for seabirds: an estimated 30,000 birds were being killed each year. What was even more concerning was that this included threatened species like the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos (Endangered) and White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis (Vulnerable).

Samantha Matjila and Titus Shaanika at work on a Namibian freezer trawler © ATF
Samantha Matjila and Titus Shaanika at work on a Namibian freezer trawler © ATF
Bird-scaring lines in action in a Namibian longline fishery © John Paterson
Bird-scaring lines in action in a Namibian longline fishery © John Paterson

Mitigation become law
The Task Force quickly set to work and started meeting with the fishing industry to show them seabird ‘mitigation measures’ like bird-scaring lines – simple lines with colourful streamers towed behind the vessel that act as ‘scarecrows’ and keep birds away from baited hooks or dangerous trawl cables. After many thousands of hours at sea and in ports building support for these measures and the importance of protecting seabirds, in 2015 the team were successful in advocating for fishery regulations requiring the use of mitigation measures by law.

These news laws meant that bird-scaring lines were widely adopted across the fleet, and the new study demonstrates just how effective the potent combination of grassroots engagement and solid regulations has been.

Samantha Matjila, the Namibia ATF Team Leader with the Namibia Nature Foundation, reflected: “It’s truly wonderful to see bycatch drop by such a huge amount in Namibia. Our waters are crucial for many globally threatened seabirds – to think that our collaborative efforts with all the vessels and the fishery managers have resulted in more than 22,000 birds being saved every year is something special. With the right levels of government investment and support, we hope that low levels of bycatch can be sustained long into the future, and that Namibia can serve as a marine conservation inspiration at a time when it is sorely needed!”

The Namibian team have also been able to connect bycatch reduction to female empowerment by partnering with local women’s group Meme Itumbapo. The group have been building bird-scaring lines to sell to the fleet for over 6 years now and have recently signed an agreement to partner with one of the major fisheries supply companies in Walvis Bay to continue their work.

The White-chinned Petrel (Vulnerable) also benefits from Namibia's new laws © Alistair J King
The White-chinned Petrel (Vulnerable) also benefits from Namibia’s new laws © Alistair J King

What’s the next step?

Since albatrosses are very long-lived birds (some species breed right up into their 60s!), we need to ensure that the approaches developed by the Task Force are hard-wired into long-term management of the fishery. Titus Shaanika, Senior ATF Instructor in Namibia, notes: “The industry has done a remarkable job to reduce seabird bycatch so substantially over such a short period. The big challenge now is to keep up those hard-earned reductions, and to wear them as a badge of honour – we can and we must do more of this across the world if we want turn the tide on biodiversity loss.”

Speaking of badges of honour, the hake fishery recently secured MSC Certification as sustainable sea food, and bird bycatch was an important consideration in the assessment.  The fishery picked up some conditions of certification – including the need to improve compliance with bird-scaring line use in the trawl fleet, and to ensure that robust data collection on bycatch continues, showing that the fishery is not having impacts on vulnerable seabird populations.

These results are certainly timely for other countries like the UK, whose own National Plan of Action for reducing seabird bycatch is under development. A close cousin of the albatross – the Northern Fulmar Fulmarus glacialis – is being caught in longline fisheries operating off the north coast of Scotland.

Rory Crawford, Bycatch Programme Manager for the BirdLife International Marine Programme, highlighted the opportunity to follow the lead shown in Namibia: “There is lots to be learned in the UK from the success story in Namibia. The ingredients of at-sea engagement, mitigation measure testing, strong regulations and very high observer coverage – 100% in some fleets – in Namibia could easily be translated to our waters if the will and resources can be found. So, what are we waiting for?”

The Namibian team is the second of five ATF teams across the world to have achieved a more than 90% seabird bycatch reduction, following a similar success in South Africa in 2014, where albatross bycatch was reduced by 95% in the hake trawl fishery. In the next two years the aim is to demonstrate similar reductions in Argentina and Chile, and to have furthered this major contribution to the improved conservation status of some of the world’s most remarkable – yet threatened – birds.


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