Sea Notes

Monday's Inspirational Photo: Amsterdam Albatross

The Amsterdam albatross is the most endangered of the 22 albatross species. In fact, scientists believe that there could be as few as 130 birds. At one time, thought to be the same species as the Wandering albatross (shown here), DNA studies have concluded that it is in fact a sub-species, and its sole breeding site on Amsterdam Island keeps it completely separate from all other species, and increases its vulnerability. They therefore need all the help then can get.

So, good news - earlier this month - the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) adopted a resolution that requires all longline fishing vessels, fishing for tuna and swordfish in the southern Indian Ocean, to adopt a combination of at least two measures to reduce the bycatch of seabirds. The southern Indian Ocean is an important feeding ground for four species of albatross, including the Amsterdam albatross.

Measures include: setting their hooks at night when birds are less active, using a bird streamer (tori) line to keep birds away from the hooks, adding weight to lines to make them sink more quickly out of reach of the albatrosses, and dyeing bait blue to make it less visible. The fisheries are given flexibility to choose which two measures from this list are most suitable to their fishery.

Once bycatch mitigation requirements have been put in place getting them actually used by fishermen is the next important step. The RSPB and BirdLife founded the Albatross Task Force to show fishermen how to use the mitigation measures. They have 14 ATF members working to protect albatrosses feeding in the waters of Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Namibia, Uruguay and Argentina. You can find out more at their web site www.savethealbatross.net and read the diaries of the Task Force members as they work with the fishing fleets at sea.

Remember to also check the Seafood Watch pocket guide for best choices, and albatross-friendly options.

The Perils of Penguins

Penguins have had a good run in the popular media over the past few years, from March of the Penguins to Madagascar to Happy Feet.

Outside of movie theaters, the story's not as great. Penguins in temperate regions already faced a are in decline because of a quadruple whammy:  mining of guano, egg harvesting, commercial fishing and oil spills.

Now comes a new study indicating that climate change is adding new stresses, as penguins are forced to swim farther from shore to find food. The loss of sea ice and icebergs means fewer places where their prey species can aggregate.

No polar bears in the Southern Ocean, no penguins in the Arctic, but these ice-dependent creatures face similar threats.

Dee Boersma of the University of Washington spells out the details in a paper just published in Bioscience.

There's a lot we can do as individuals to reduce our carbon footprint. And we can take ownership of the overfishing issue by using a Seafood Watch pocket guide when buying seafood, or becoming a Seafood Watch Advocate and encouraging businesses to change their seafood buying practices.

It won't happen overnight, but our incremental changes will make a different -- for polar bears and penguins.

Wednesday's Featured Film: We Can Fly!

OK, OK, I know: we usually feature our films on Friday. But this was too good to pass up.

And, yes, I know that April Fools' Day is also history, and this ranks as one of the best April Fools' spoofs ever.

Now, without any further ado, the stentorian tones and authoritative voice of the BBC present hitherto unseen footage of an extraordinary discovery from the annals of avian wildlife: Penguins that fly.

So this isn't just a post of cool footage of the improbable (though what's wrong with that?), here's a recent story from National Public Radio on the impacts -- negative and positive -- of climate change on penguins in Antarctica.

Reporter Daniel Zwerdling filed the report from a colony of Adelie penguins that scientists first began studying a century ago. The key seems to be that Adelie penguins are in trouble in areas where the ice is retreating, and doing great in areas where there's more ice than before.

Great report, with great pictures, more video and a cool slideshow.

If you need a further penguin fix, the Penguin Cam in our new Splash Zone exhibit galleries at the Monterey Bay Aquarium is back up and running. You can watch (and listen to) the penguin feeding twice a day, or just tune in between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Pacific time to see what the African blackfooted penguins are doing.

Prius the hybrid Albatross

Here's a great story from our friends at TOPP (Tagging of Pacific Predators) -- an albatross that's a hybrid between the two species that nest on U.S. soil, the Laysan albatross and the black-footed albatross.

Says Melinda, the researcher shown here with Prius: "In appearance, he's almost a perfect blend of the two species. He has black feet and a dark head, with white around his beak and eye, like a black-footed albatross. But his beak is a light orange-pink, and his wings and body are two toned -- dark wings and lighter body -- like a Laysan. He tends to socialize mostly with black-footed albatross, but his dance repertoire contains moves from both species. His vocalizations also sound like a mixture between the two species."

Both species are listed on the IUCN "red list" as species in danger of extinction, along with most of their relatives in the southern hemisphere. In fact, of the 22 species of albatross worldwide, 19 are threatened with extinction.

Most of these albatross species are particularly threatened by interactions with fisheries -- especially longlining and trawling, where they can be snagged by hooks or caught by other gear. In a recent study in South Africa, 12 foreign longline vessels fishing between June and December snagged and killed over 1,000 albatross. It is estimated that tens of thousands of others die this way each year. You can find out about the work being done by the Albatross Task Force - a team of people working with fishermen to show them how to avoid accidentally catching seabirds at www.savethealbatross.net

Smells of the Sea

A new study suggests that Wandering albatross (the largest of the 22 species) find their food by their sense of smell, and are able to hone in on floating debris such as dead squid, as they make their epic voyages across ocean basins.

This groundbreaking research involved fitting specialized equipment to a number of Wanderers, which would both measure their position as they cruised, but also their stomach temperature, which would indicate a feeding event. Results showed the giant birds flying across the wind, which is the best way to pick up a scent trail.

Tagging and tracking albatross is not new, however. A large study "Tracking Ocean Wanderers" published in 2004, pulled together most known data on albatross to establish where they forage, and where that brings them into conflict with the world's fisheries. The results of these findings continues to enable scientists to present important information to fisheries managers about their impacts on endangered albatross species. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 albatross die in fisheries each year. You can learn more at www.savethealbatross.net 

You can help by using a Seafood Watch pocket guide and finding ocean-friendly choices when you shop for seafood.

Check out Wings of the Albatross in National Geographic - stunning photos by Frans Lanting and beautiful words from Carl Safina.

Friday's Featured Film: The Miracle of Birds

There were two pieces of good news this week in the world of seabirds, and an exceptional piece of video to share.

First come confirmed sightings out of the western Pacific of Beck's petrel, a critically endangered seabird that hadn't been seen since the late 1920s. The discovery in the Bismark Archipelago, northeast of Papua New Guinea, was published in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club . The sighting gives new impetus for conservation efforts to save the bird.

Then comes news that the U.S. Forest Service has refused a Bush Administration request to open more old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest to logging by weakening regulations that protect the threatened marbled murrelet, a seabird that nests in the forests.

Finally, the video, courtesy of the BBC and YouTube. David Attenborough tells the astounding story of the midnight scramble of ancient murrelet chicks, which run through a tangle of old-growth trees and underbrush to reach their parents in the ocean.

BBC won't let us embed the video here, but you can watch it on this link. It's an extraordinary journey.

Monday's Photo: Brown Pelican

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." -- Langston Hughes

We all dream of a world with healthy oceans, with abundant ocean wildlife, with humans living in balance with nature.

Sometimes we struggle to envision the fulfillment of those dreams. And then, there are days like today, when we can see the dreams take wing. Literally.

Forty years after they were pushed to the brink of extinction, brown pelicans are about to come off the Endangered Species List. The Interior Department has proposed de-listing the brown pelican because the population has rebounded so strongly from the devastating impacts of widespread DDT use.

It's a fantastic cause-and-effect success story, as environment writer Marla Cone notes in her Los Angeles Times article about the recovery.

"Pelicans suffered almost complete reproductive failure in the 1960s and early 1970s because the pesticide DDT accumulated in their bodies, weakening their eggs and killing chicks," she writes. "When DDT was banned in the United States in 1972, the species started to rebound.

"Today, more than 70,000 breeding pairs of pelicans inhabit California and Baja California, and total numbers have surged to about 620,000 birds along the West Coast, the Gulf Coast, and in Latin and South America."

Of course, less DDT on land also means less residual DDT finding its way into ocean food webs. Today, pelicans have recovered. Other species, including our own, may benefit down the road.

Celebrate and enjoy!

Credits: top photo: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times; lower photo, Rashid Abdu.