For those of you who missed the excellent presentation by Dr Yuna Kim at this year’s Annual Bird Forum 2024, it featured a special seabird that breeds on Port Stephens’ islands, the threatened Gould’s Petrel. We have been lucky to receive permission from the Editor of Australian Birdlife to bring you this article recently featured in their Spring 2024 issue.
A Tale of Two Islands – Unlocking the mysteries of Gould’s Petrel
The graceful Gould’s Petrel is one of Australia’s conservation successes, brought back from near-extinction three decades ago. Though land-based threats were managed successfully, recent declines in its population pose a puzzle, and have sent Dr Yuna Kim of the Australasian Seabird Group and BirdLife Australia’s Emily Mowat out to sea to find the answers.
Read the Full Story here:
And for those Petrel-heads amongst you, including Mick, here is a link to Dr Kim’s 2014 PhD:
Breeding and Foraging Ecology of the Threatened Gould’s Petrel Pterodroma leucoptera.
But wait, there’s more …
- Here’s what else you missed at the 2024 forum – Shorebirds and Seabirds on and off the Port Stephens Coastline
- EcoNetwork welcomes bird experts at annual forum – Post event media release August 2024
Threats to seabirds: a global assessment
Biological Conservation, Volume 237, 2019, Pages 525-537, ISSN 0006-3207. Maria P. Dias, Rob Martin, Elizabeth J. Pearmain, Ian J. Burfield, Cleo Small, Richard A. Phillips, Oliver Yates, Ben Lascelles, Pablo Garcia Borboroglu, John P. Croxall. Science Direct
Abstract:
We present the first objective quantitative assessment of the threats to all 359 species of seabirds, identify the main challenges facing them, and outline priority actions for their conservation. We applied the standardised Threats Classification Scheme developed for the IUCN Red List to objectively assess threats to each species and analysed the data according to global IUCN threat status, taxonomic group, and primary foraging habitat (coastal or pelagic).
The top three threats to seabirds in terms of number of species affected and average impact are: invasive alien species, affecting 165 species across all the most threatened groups; bycatch in fisheries, affecting fewer species (100) but with the greatest average impact; and climate change/severe weather, affecting 96 species.
Overfishing, hunting/trapping and disturbance were also identified as major threats to seabirds. Reversing the top three threats alone would benefit two-thirds of all species and c. 380 million individual seabirds (c. 45% of the total global seabird population). Most seabirds (c. 70%), especially globally threatened species, face multiple threats.
For albatrosses, petrels and penguins in particular (the three most threatened groups of seabirds), it is essential to tackle both terrestrial and marine threats to reverse declines. As the negative effects of climate change are harder to mitigate, it is vital to compensate by addressing other major threats that often affect the same species, such as invasive alien species, bycatch and overfishing, for which proven solutions exist.
Port Stephens is truly a beautiful place BUT …
… Watch this eye-opening video presentation showing the threats on our doorstep to local marine & terrestrial wildlife. Many thanks to Mac from Seasik Productions for making his work available at the Bird Forum: