ROSS WANLESS REPORTS ON A CONFERENCE IN TASMANIA

I travelled to Hobart, Tasmania, at the invitation of Dr Geoff Tuck, from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia. The purpose of my visit was to bring to conclusion a collaborative work on Tristan Albatross at-sea distribution, overlaps with fishing effort and fitting the overlap patterns to bycatch data, coupling this to a demographic model of the albatross and examining the ability of the model to explain the observed decreases in albatross breeding pairs at Gough Island. While in Hobart I met with Dr Ben Sullivan, Global Seabird Programme Coordinator (my GSP ‘boss’). I also met with Dr Tim Reid, the post-doctoral researcher who will be undertaking the South African Marine IBA programme in collaboration with Prof. Peter Ryan, Fitz, UCT, in August. A fourth and probably as important opportunity for the travel was to work with Dr Barry Baker, at the Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) secretariat to develop a Level 1 Ecological Risk Assessment for seabirds in the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission area. During the development of this work I was able to discuss bycatch mitigation research outcomes and future priorities, as well as advocacy strategies for tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (tRFMO) with Barry Baker and Warren Papworth, Executive Secretary of ACAP. I also had informal meetings with Dr Graham Robertson, of the Australian Antarctic Division and a key developer of mitigation technologies and research into the effectiveness of various mitigation measures.

Outcomes of meeting (include successes, challenges, recommendations for BLSA)

• The CSIRO meeting produced excellent progress towards a final publication. Our intention to have a draft ms ready at the end of the week was not achieved, but a great deal of work has gone into refining the parametisation of the model and a robust result is anticipated in the next 4-6 weeks. In addition I started work on a separate ms describing the basic distribution of the non-breeding Tristan Albatross in relation to fishing effort, to be prepared in collaboration with Geoff Tuck and others.

• Barry Baker and I finished a table on seabird data, and he will now convert the data into risk scores for the ERA, to be presented jointly by ACAP and BirdLife at the IOTC Working Party on Ecosystems and Bycatch in Seychelles in September.

• I spent time finalising a ms on the impacts of mice on the Endangered Atlantic Petrels of Gough Island (derived from my doctoral thesis). This is now ready to be sent to the various co-authors for comment and then submission to a scientific journal later this year.

• There are no particular recommendations for BLSA arising from my time. The 10 days was very stimulating intellectually, very productive (once papers are finally published, probably early next year) and the meeting with Ben Sullivan produced a clear joint vision for GSP in Africa, particularly the course for the ATF, in the light of Meidad Goren’s pending permanent return to Israel.

• A particular challenge was fitting in soccer match schedules (midnight and 4:30 am) with other work and jet-lag insomnia. Otherwise my hosts ensured there were no challenges, only successes!

2. Names of documents emanating from meeting

   1. A Level 1 Ecological Risk Assessment for seabirds in the IOTC area (DRAFT)

   2. Modelling the impact of fishery bycatch on Tristan albatross of Gough Island (DRAFT)

3. Acknowledgments (sponsors etc)

CSIRO Australia, ACAP and RSPB jointly sponsored all significant costs and were generous and hospitable hosts for the duration of my stay. Tim Reid took me on a clean-up birding trip that netted me all 14 Tasmanian endemics and ~50 lifers in a day.

Participant Contact Details:

Name: Ross Wanless

Designation: BirdLife South Africa Seabird Division Manager and Africa Coordinator, BirdLife International Global Seabird Programme

Tel nos:+27 21 419 7347

Email address: gsp@birdlife.org.za

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