Sea change for the oceans BirdLife International Marine Programme

Partnership for nature and people The BirdLife International Marine Programme finds solutions to protect , marine life and the habitats they depend on.

Seabirds, one of the world’s most threatened group of , are the best indicators of the health of global oceans.

For decades our expertise and evidence have catalysed action to identify and address threats to seabirds both on land and at sea. Through the BirdLife Partnership, we work globally in the waters of 120 countries and on the High Seas, in collaborative partnerships with government agencies, industry, NGOs, communities and individuals to:

• Identify the key areas for conserving marine life • Assess the impacts of threats • Propose and implement solutions • Promote the sustainable management of our oceans.

Images: Front cover - Soaring by A Silva-Costa; Young elephant seal in king penguin colony by Gunther Riehle; Albatross Task Force and fishermen by Albatross Task Force Argentina; Bronwyn with binoculars by Christine Madden; Back of fishing vessel by Ross Wanless; Diving by Dmitry Miroshnikov; Foreword - Surreal diving by Dmitry Miroshnikov, page 1 - Albatross and chick by Andrea Angel and Ross Wanless; Albatross Task Force Instructor team by Albatross Task Force, pages 4-5 - Penguin colony background by Ross Wanless; Bycaught albatross by Martin Abreu; African penguin by Ross Wanless; Fishing vs birds by Luis Cabezas; Oiled by Forest & Bird; Invasive mouse with kill by Andrea Angel and Ross Wanless, page 6 - Tagged soaring albatross by Jon Ashburner; Scientists tagging albatross by David Gremillet; page 7 - IBA map by Ben Lascelles/BirdLife, Gentoo Penguin by Ben Lascelles; page 8 - Spanish mIBA by J.M. Arcos, SEO/BirdLife; Whale tail by S Ebbert, page 9 - Chinese Crested by Chen Li, worldsrarestbirds.com; Fiji Petrel by worldsrarestbirds.com; page 10 - Soaring albatross by A Silva-Costa; Patricio Krause by Kranet Ltd.; page 11 - Stellar’s Eider in net by Markus Vetemaa, Bronwyn by Christine The Albatross Task Force, which works with the Madden; page 12 - Albatross on hook by Graham Robertson; David Wilson by Indian Ocean Tuna Commission; page 13 - Vessel by Bokamoso Lebepe; MSC Mackerel by Ulf Berglund; Turtle by Jordi Chias, 2 uwaterphoto.com; page 14 - Albatross Task Force shaking hands by Albatross Task Force ; Sharks and fish by Jeff Litton / Marine Photobank; page 15 - Diving cormorants by Dmitry Miroshnikov. fishing industry in eight countries. 3 Bycatch in fishing gear The BirdLife International Longlines and trawls 300,000 seabirds killed by Marine Programme has these fishing gears combined each year. been at the heart of Gillnets: 400,000 birds killed efforts to assess threats to by this fishing gear each year. Purse seines: seabirds and find solutions appear to be particularly susceptible, but we have no global estimate of the total death toll yet. Habitat destruction and degradation Predation by invasive Seabirds are one of of the Loss of breeding and feeding habitat. Some of the world’s world’s most threatened most threatened seabirds - including , group of birds Galapagos Petrel, and Fiji Petrel - Almost half of all species are are affected by invasive in decline and under threat. Marine pollution species. Pollution by oil, chemicals and plastics already affects over a quarter of threatened Climate change seabird species. The loss of breeding sites through melting sea ice and sea level rise is an immediate Competition for prey with threat. Changes in ocean dynamics and food chains are commercial fisheries already impacting many other species and will continue to The rapid expansion of fisheries for do so in the longer term. smaller species that seabirds feed on – like krill, anchovies and capelin – threatens the productivity and survival of birds through direct competition. 4 5 We’ve collaborated Putting seabirds on with scientists around the world the map to create a unique Working internationally with scientists and marine experts, we have established Tracking Ocean interactive map Wanderers: the global seabird tracking database, showing the world’s the largest of its kind in the world. key sites for the By analyzing seabird movements and distribution, both when breeding on land and feeding at sea, conservation of we have identified the location of 3,500 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs). Vitally, our work is seabirds and wider pinpointing where at-sea threats have the greatest marine life negative impact, and guides where fisheries and protection measures are most urgently needed. Using seabirds as indicators, we can identify where some of the greatest conservation gains for the marine environment can be made. Explore the world of seabird data at www.birdlife.org/datazone/marine

Grey-headed Albatross data informs important areas in BirdLife’s work has made a need of protection. • Raw tracking data Main feeding areas “ valuable contribution to the Tracked range Key areas in need of protection (IBAs) Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) process to describe areas meeting the CBD scientific criteria for Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) Dr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary ”

6 7 Our work helped to create a Marine Protected Area Fiji Petrel. network in Spain. Preventing Extinctions

We operate worldwide, across the BirdLife Partnership and with other global experts, to help save seabirds in peril of extinction. Special initiatives include:

Major focus on albatross – 15 of 22 species are threatened with extinction; our work on bycatch has a strong emphasis Protecting the most on preventing the needless deaths of important places for in fisheries. Pterodroma Petrels – we have seabirds established a forum for researchers to share their experiences of working on these enigmatic species. This is helping Identifying IBAs at sea is just the first step - we to determine conservation priorities and need to ensure that these sites are properly influence policy. protected. In order to do this we ensure that this information is in the hands of decision makers Balearic – we are making and used at the highest level: in national, regional concerted efforts to tackle the threats of The Spanish marine IBA and international policy frameworks, such as the invasive species, tourist developments Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). on breeding islands and bycatch in “ inventory constitutes a very fisheries. valuable element for the We are working through Partners to protect IBAs. Penguins – we are building our Spanish authorities, and Despite notable successes, there remains understanding of penguin movements much to be done. Many of these sites, while the European Commission, Critically Endangered at sea and potential interactions with internationally recognised as important, are Chinese Crested Tern fisheries and other industries. in the identification of unprotected. We will continue to press at had their best breeding national, regional and global levels for the formal season to date in 2014. Chinese Crested Tern - we are Special Protection Areas for designation and protection of these sites. In order enhancing protection and monitoring to maximise the conservation benefits of IBAs, at the sole viable current breeding site; seabirds we will enhance our existing partnerships and establishing and improving other known develop new ones with organisations working or potential breeding sites; defining and Ms Soledad Blanco, Director, Directorate-General on marine mammals and turtles. protecting key feeding areas. for Environment,” European Commission. 8 9 The challenge now is to follow South ’s Ending seabird lead in other countries, translating the bycatch reductions achieved on participating vessels, bycatch right across national fishing fleets, into new, particularly small-scale, fisheries and onto High Seas vessels. In 2014, we branched out even Helping fisheries to further, applying the ATF model to establish change for the better the ‘Seabird Task Force’, tackling bycatch in Europe.

Hundreds of thousands of seabirds, Today, these teams work on fishing vessels in Recently we have identified that seabird particularly albatrosses, needlessly die behind the seabird bycatch hotspots of entanglement in gillnet fisheries is a substantial fishing boats each year. They are caught and and southern Africa to demonstrate, test and threat, and have been amassing evidence of drowned on baited longline hooks and nets and improve mitigation measures (techniques that birds being caught in purse seine nets. Since killed by collisions with trawl cables. reduce bycatch). We are dramatically reducing 2013 we have worked in gillnet fisheries in seabird bycatch, maintaining fish catches and particular, which threaten a host of different We started campaigning for changes in fishing enhancing the sustainability and efficiency of species, including seaducks, shearwaters, Award-winning Albatross practices in the 1990s. Solving the seabird fisheries. The scale of potential success has penguins, auks, turtles, dolphins and porpoises. Task Force instructors test bycatch crisis requires working directly with already been demonstrated by the Albatross The challenge is substantial: these fisheries and find solutions. the fishermen themselves, as well as with Task Force in South Africa. Here, the team are often small-scale, with huge numbers fishery managers and governments. By 2005 worked with industry and government in the of individual fishermen – and effective we had established the Albatross Task Force hake trawl fishery to achieve a sustained mitigation measures to reduce bycatch are ATF) – an international team of seabird bycatch reduction in albatross bycatch of 99% over a not yet developed. However, we believe mitigation instructors. six year period! that our experience with the Albatross Task Force stands us in good stead to meet these challenges! Seabird bycatch has been reduced dramatically The world of fishing is changing in the South African hake trawl. “ and everyone in the sector must learn to adapt to those changes as well. I’m now part of the Albatross Task Force’s project to develop a new form of fishing; one that saves seabirds Patricio Krause, former purse seine captain and director of Kranet Ltd., a Chilean company working ”with the ATF to modify purse seine nets to save seabirds. 10 We are working with fishermen 11 to reduce gillnet bycatch. Giving seabirds a voice Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses Tackling bycatch in international waters requires coordinated, global efforts. We work in the international policy arena to effect and Petrels (ACAP) positive change for seabirds and the marine environment. BirdLife plays an active role in ACAP, the multilateral agreement that seeks to conserve albatrosses and petrels through international Regional Fisheries Management action. We provide ACAP with data on the Red Organisations List status of albatrosses and petrels, as well as information from the Albatross Task Force and The jurisdictions of the world’s five tuna Regional Fisheries from our work with RFMOs. BirdLife co-led on Management Organisations (or RFMOs) overlap with 80% of the identification of Internationally Important global albatross distribution - they clearly have a vital role to play in Sites for ACAP species. With ACAP, we have reducing bycatch threats to albatross populations. We are working produced multilingual Mitigation Fact Sheets with these (and other) RFMOs to develop, implement and enforce which describe mitigation measures available conservation measures that help keep seabirds off hooks on the to reduce seabird bycatch in longline and high seas. trawl fisheries. www.birdlife.org/worldwide/seabird-bycatch- Our efforts are leading to the adoption of mitigation measures to mitigation-factsheets save seabirds at a global scale – making a massive contribution to the survival of a range of rare and iconic species. Marine Stewardship Council The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) manages an ecolabelling scheme and standard that certifies fisheries as sustainable. BirdLife International has worked to strengthen MSC’s BirdLife’s willingness to work criteria on the bycatch of birds, mammals and collaboratively with our sea turtles, serves on their Stakeholder Council, “ and engages in the assessment of individual membership has resulted in fisheries, particularly where seabird bycatch is an issue. it becoming the single most www.msc.org effective and respected NGO working on bycatch matters in the Indian Ocean David Wilson, Deputy Secretary/Science Manager for the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission. ”

12 13 Let us work together to create “ new waves of action for ocean sustainability – for people and the planet Seabirds are incredible, Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General on World Ocean Day” (8 June 2013) but in danger – half Scaling up success of all species are in Climate change decline. – tackling new We plan to use the existing BirdLife data to identify breeding sites, especially of threatened The BirdLife International Marine challenges species, most vulnerable to sea level rise Programme is tackling some of the and our Partnership will work with relevant organisations to investigate potential biggest threats. Ensuring forage fisheries are for translocations to safer sites. sustainable We want to work with you. Increasingly, global fisheries are targeting Keeping common seabirds species lower down the food chain, putting common Get in touch to find out how you them in direct prey competition with seabirds. Many widespread, “common” seabirds, can support us. We plan to develop projects to assess and especially in the tropics, are in steady decline. reduce the impact of these activities on If we wait until they reach global threat status, populations of seabirds and other marine it may be too late for some species torecover. species. We will work with local communities and For inquiries about our Marine work: Key sites: protection and national governments to improve the protection and management of sites with BirdLife International Marine Programme management key seabird colonies. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) The Lodge Marine spatial planning Clean seas Sandy Seabirds are at risk from oil spills and potential Bedfordshire SG19 2DL collisions with poorly sited offshore windfarms. The proliferation of marine debris, particularly UK Plans for mining of seabed minerals are also plastic, is of serious concern to marine wildlife. developing rapidly. Planning and regulation The population-level impacts of marine debris t. 01767 680551 need to be strong to ensure the associated need to be investigated; meanwhile BirdLife e. [email protected] risks are minimized. The BirdLife Partnership will support local initiatives to remove plastics @BirdLifeMarine will work with other organisations to improve from beaches and to assist the development national and regional marine spatial planning. of “clean seas” campaigns. www.birdlife.org/marine 14 15 Together we are BirdLife International

The global Partnership for nature and people For general information about BirdLife, contact: BirdLife International, Wellbrook Court, Girton Road, Cambridge CB3 0NA UNITED KINGDOM T:+44 (0)1223 277 318 F:+44 (0)1223 277 200 E: [email protected] @birdlife_news www.birdlife.org BirdLife International is a UK registered charity, no. 1042125 Design: witchamberries.wix.com/michelleberry