Source: Department of Conservation
By Katrina Edwards
If you’re after epic adventures, you can’t look past the story of Carlos Zavalaga, who followed Northern Buller’s albatross all the way from Peru to the tiny island of Motuhara in the Chathams and back again!
Dr Carlos Zavalaga, a researcher at Universidad Científica del Sur in Lima, Peru, knows the migratory Northern Buller’s albatross fly several thousands of kilometres from their breeding grounds in Aotearoa New Zealand to feed in Peruvian waters where artisanal long-line fishing vessels operate.
What he doesn’t know and wants to find out – just like our DOC seabird teams here in Aotearoa – is if the interactions between the birds and the fishing boats are posing a risk to the birds. So, as a secondee to DOC, he crossed the Pacific as albatrosses do, to help find out.
Seabird capital of the world
You would’ve heard this already, but it’s worth repeating. Aotearoa is the seabird capital of the world. We host over 30% of the world’s seabirds.
“Looking after them on behalf of the world is our responsibility, but they’re not doing so well,” says Johannes Fischer, Marine Science Advisor.
“Despite our huge efforts to rid predators from a lot of our important seabird breeding islands, our seabirds are generally declining. In fact, 90% of our seabirds are in trouble.”
Our seabirds go beyond our jurisdiction
A lot of these seabird population declines are due to causes beyond our jurisdiction.
Igor Debski, Principal Science Advisor Marine, says, “These birds use entire ocean basins where they face threats we can’t control. So, we address those threats by working with foreign nations.”
This work falls under New Zealand’s International Seabird Strategy. Mandy Leathers from the International Team, who led the development of the Strategy, says, “Fortunately, there are simple, effective and inexpensive ways to make fishing seabird safe. The Strategy sets a clear roadmap towards seabird-safe fisheries across the oceans where our seabirds forage and live.”
Johannes explains why we’re working with Peru: “Many of our seabirds cross the Pacific and spend a lot of their time in the highly productive Humboldt Current System off the coast of Peru. The Northern Buller’s albatross is a good example of that. So, Peru is an important country for us to work with to make sure our seabirds are safe when they breed here and feed over there.”
A helping hand from 10,000 kilometres away
Peru has a large number of small artisanal fishing fleets. Together with Carlos and his colleague in Peru, Javier Quiñones, we have been trying to identify more precisely which of their fisheries pose the most risk to seabirds such as Northern Buller’s, and then work with those fisheries to help reduce seabird deaths.
We also don’t know much about seabird distributions in their non-breeding range. Carlos had already tried to get some answers by satellite tagging Northern Buller’s in Peru’s waters three years ago. Unfortunately, this project didn’t have much luck with getting data, as all the transmitters were lost – likely due to moulting. Although what he did get showed that Northern Buller’s were following the paths of fishing vessels.
Colony life
Motuhara (or Motchuhar in Moriori) is home to the world’s biggest colonies of Northern Buller’s albatross and Northern royal albatross. There are also colonies of Northern giant petrels and cape petrels.
Carlos and DOC staff, Mike Bell and Dave Bell, spent 12 days working with all these species – counting nests, checking bands, banding fledglings, recovering geolocators, and most importantly, tagging Northern Buller’s albatrosses with satellite transmitters to get the all-important data for when these birds return to Peru and where they spend their time.
A little project making huge gains
Carlos tagged Northern Buller’s albatrosses whose nests had already failed this season in the hopes they would soon leave the colony and fly back to the feeding grounds in Peru. He hoped this would mean he could get enough data before the tail feathers, where the tags are attached, moulted off.
It’s working.
“Five birds are now on their way to Peru – to Carlos – as we speak. It’s all coming together,” Igor says.
It’s also been a win for relationship building with the owners of the island. Being allowed to work on the island was no small deal. It’s privately owned by a conglomerate of over 200 different Māori owners and getting permission is not straightforward.
Carlos met with two of the owners before leaving on the boat for Motuhara. They were really interested in his work and what’s happening in Peru to protect Northern Buller’s albatross.
“This international collaboration is bringing a lot to our general knowledge of the birds, implementing the international seabird strategy, and building important relationships,” says Johannes. “This little project is actually making huge gains in everything.”
To find out more, go to our website and watch the northern royal albatross at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head on Royal Cam: Royal Cam: Royal albatross/toroa (doc.govt.nz)
