MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Albatross and Petrel programme pushes ahead

THE start of the Falklands Conservation Albatross and Petrel Programme (funded by the Overseas Territories Environment Programme and FIG) in March 2004 followed on from the highly successful Seabirds At Sea Team investigating the conservation of seabirds in the Falkland Islands.

The Albatross team members have changed after a re-shuffle of staff in March 2005 but the aims have remained the same.

The programme is divided into several key elements. There is the ongoing seabird monitoring at sea, which involves observations of interactions between fishing trawlers and seabirds after the implementation of mitigation measures. This provides a means of estimating the mortality associated with the fishing industry and helps identify the best way to minimise the loss of protected birds.

Project Leader Oli Yates said, "Our work here is advanced as mitigation devices that really work have been adopted and reductions in mortality appear to be excellent. The Falklands are ahead of targets and leaders in world seabird mitigation use. The effort needed now is to investigate the vessels with no mitigation or where little knowledge exists about seabird interactions, basically loligo trawlers, jiggers and surimi vessels."

A second part is land-based conservation including the highly important five year counts of the breeding populations.

Mr Yates said that without these estimates of numbers present throughout the Islands it would be impossible to determine if seabird populations are increasing, decreasing or remaining the same. "We are currently busy preparing for the summer season when the next round of counts will take place. Letters have been sent to landowners with colonies and many have already been returned with excellent descriptions of colony sites and details. I would like to thank everybody for replying and generously giving access permission to their land. The surveys would be impossible without your support. If the remaining few folk who haven't replied could spare a few minutes to send in their maps we would be most grateful."

Education is an important part of any conservation project and this one is certainly no exception. Staff at Falklands Conservation have produced a colourful and informative leaflet (in Spanish) to be distributed to the fishing trawlers to help all the crew appreciate the reasons why they are now required to use bird-scaring devices whilst fishing.

Mr Yates stresses that this is important as all crewmembers "have to do a little extra to make this successful, and with long workdays anyway this is a lot to ask." Education works both ways onshore, and through talks with landowners FC have been able to better appreciate the management of Falkland Island seabird colonies particularly minimising impact from human disturbance, especially during sensitive egg and young chick periods. Mr Yates said these details will help to write recommended guidelines for seabird colonies. He added, "thank you to all those who have helped develop best management issues.

"A further aspect and one we are extremely excited about is an up and coming international workshop to be held in Stanley. A group of experts, including those involved with seabird conservation on other UK Overseas Territories, will be visiting the Falklands in March 2006 to discuss progressing implementation of the international Agreement for the Conservation of Albatross and Petrels. Delegates will help define the roles of each Territory, identify gaps in our knowledge and make recommendations on the future direction of seabird work. It will be a great opportunity to showcase the seabird conservation work in the Falklands, where many of the key people are right here with the birds, where it matters." (PN)