United States

3rd World Seabird Conference

Closing Address

Welcome Seabirders!  

Welcome to Virtual World Seabird Conference 3 - vWSC3! Whether you are in your office or lab, at home, in a coffee shop or bar poaching some wifi, or at a remote field site or research vessel – we are very excited to welcome you to the third ever World Seabird Conference. 

We would like to thank ALL of you for being so patient as WSC3 was scheduled, postponed, rescheduled, revised to virtual, and scheduled again. Throughout all those iterations there was one message that remained perfectly clear – seabirders were eager to meet and share their science. If we could not meet in person then virtual it would have to be, but a 3rd WSC was something everyone wanted. That support and commitment helped the WSU Board of Directors and Member Societies sort through all of the challenges they faced to plan and hold this conference. 

The list of those that need to be thanked is long and, while we plan on recognizing many during the live closing plenary, it is important to do so here in writing as well. 

The Australasian Seabird Group was our Local Host for our plan to meet in Hobart, Tasmania. They invested substantial time and effort to find venues and plan events that we unfortunately were not able to visit. Nonetheless we appreciate their work on behalf of WSC3 and encourage all of you to thank them when you see their members in Gathertown or elsewhere during our virtual meeting. Their willingness to host created the initial excitement for WSC3 and without that our vWSC would not have been possible.

We also wish to thank the Science Program Committee, the Virtual Committee, and the Early Career Scientist Committee for their hard work planning the logistics, events, and schedule for vWSC3. These committees also had to deal with changing parameters and short timelines that made what is always a challenging task even more challenging. The Travel Awards Committee also invested time and effort in developing procedures for awarding travel funds that ultimately would not be implemented. 

Our ability to shift from an in-person to a virtual meeting, and to do so in a way that would be financially feasible, was due to the effective efforts of The International Fundraising Committee and to our financial sponsors. The IFC raised funds to support WSC3 and then, through the good relationships they built with sponsors, ensured we could re-envision how those funds could be used to support a virtual conference that would be affordable and high-quality.

We all owe the WSU Board of Directors and the Representatives of the Member Societies a great deal of thanks. They are the ones who manage the WSU and, for the past 18 months, have had to have a series of challenging meetings and conversations, have had to make a series of difficult choices, have had to do all of that while considering the short- and long-term health of WSU and the World Seabird Conferences, and did this while also managing their own challenges at their day jobs. We are grateful for their diligence, patience, foresight, and throughout all of the meetings, their collegiality. Also – a 6-year term is quite a commitment!

There would not be a WSC3 without a successful WSC1 and WSC2. Thanks go to the Pacific Seabird Group for their support of WSC1 in Victoria, Canada, and to the African Seabird Group for their support of WSC2 in Cape Town, South Africa. In each of these endeavors and for our current conference we were fortunate to work with a dependable and trustworthy partner in Podium Conferences. Michelle Smith and Marischal de Armond have become valued members of our team and have not only helped us plan conferences but have assisted and advised the WSU Chairs and Board on issues above and beyond conference planning. 

As we embark on our vWSC3 week we extend to all of you our thanks for showing up, for being patient, and most importantly for the work you do with seabirds. We are all part of a unique, global community that shares an interest, a fascination, and a passion for birds that make a living in our world’s oceans. We have advanced the science, conservation, and management of seabirds as well the ecosystems they inhabit. We are consistently impressed and motivated by the work you do. 

The WSU formed in 2010 because we saw the need for a global organization to address challenges at a global level. Over the past 11 years WSU has grown, adapted, and evolved to become the community that this week is making vWSC3 a reality. Enjoy the week, appreciate and support the friends and colleagues you have made in the community, and if you see us in a virtual hallway please stop and say hello! 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve all of you and the WSU over the past few years,

Nicholas Carlile, Interim Chair, WSU<br>
Patrick Jodice, 2nd Chair of the WSU<br><br>

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Join us for four days of science, networking and virtual engagement with delegates from around the world!

**Abstract:**

Understanding encounters between marine predators and fisheries can offer managers new perspectives on unwanted interactions to inform dynamic ocean management and predator conservation. Although seabird-fisheries overlap has been documented at many scales, remote identification of vessel encounter events has lagged because high-resolution vessel movement data often is lacking. We develop methods that reveal fine-scale albatross-fisheries encounters throughout the North Pacific Ocean. We identified commercial fishing operations using Global Fishing Watch (GFW) data and detection algorithms that process vessel GPS tracks to identify fishing vessels. We compiled GPS tracks of adult black-footed (BFAL) and Laysan (LAAL) albatrosses, and juvenile short-tailed albatrosses (STAL). We quantified albatross-vessel encounter events based on the assumed distance at which birds perceive a vessel (≤30km), and interaction events when associations were ≤3km. For each event we quantified bird behavior, environmental conditions, and vessel characteristics and then applied Boosted Regression Tree models to identify drivers of interaction events (STAL and LAAL) and the duration of these events (STAL). The density of fishing effort and vessel length influenced model explanatory power, but fishing method and flag nation did not. Temporal variables (time of day and month), depth and bird foraging state also helped explain when STAL approached a vessel, but environmental conditions were more important for explaining interaction duration. LAAL were more likely to approach vessels during the last 60% (by time) of their foraging trips. BFAL were the most likely to approach vessels (61.9% of 21 encounters), but limited vessel encounters prevented evaluation of meaningful explanatory models. Our analysis offers unique insight into contributing factors of high-risk interactions that could lead to bycatch. Given the global spatio-temporal availability of GFW vessel data, our methods can be applied to other marine predators--if tracking data are available--to enhance dynamic ocean management and marine predator conservation.

**Authors:**

Leigh Torres¹, Rachael Orben¹, Josh Adams², Michelle Hester³, Scott Shaffer⁴, Rob Suryan⁵, Tomohiro Deguchi⁶, Kiyoaki Ozaki⁶, Fumio Sato⁶, Lindsay Young⁷, Melinda Conners⁸, David Kroodsma⁹, Corey Clatterbuck¹⁰, Melinda Conners¹⁰

¹Oregon State University, ²USGS, ³Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge, ⁴San Jose State University, ⁵Alaska Fisheries Science Center, ⁶Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, ⁷Pacific Rim Conservation, ⁸Stony Brook University, ⁹Global Fishing Watch, ¹⁰San Diego State University

Across borders: External factors and prior behavior influence North Pacific albatross associations with fishing vessels

**Abstract:**

Light pollution, and the potential risks it poses to all living things, is emerging as an issue of concern worldwide. In Australia, the draft National Light Pollution Guidelines for Wildlife aims to provide theoretical, technical and practical information required to assess if a lighting project is likely to affect wildlife and outline potential management tools to minimise and mitigate that affect. Offshore oil and gas facilities present a year-round source of artificial light at sea, potentially disrupting critical behaviours in both nocturnal and diurnal wildlife, including birds. Negative responses of birds to artificial light may include collision, entrapment, stranding, grounding, disorientation or interference with navigation, potentially resulting in reduced fitness, injury and/or death. However, the degree of impact can vary between species, depending on their habitat use and adaptations, and within species, depending on the life stage of the individual and the behaviour being undertaken at the time. Birds, like most vertebrates, have an eye that is well adapted to see colour. However, adaptation of sensitivity to different wavelengths can vary between species. We present a case study applying the draft Light Pollution Guidelines to develop an impact assessment that considered the conservation status, distribution, habitat use and relative density of species in the region, with reported interactions with artificial light at sea, to determine the vulnerability of different seabird species to the proposed facility. By applying knowledge of light type and wavelength sensitivity of the most vulnerable species, we were able to develop project-specific best practice lighting design guidance outlining mitigation measures to be implemented during both design and operation of the facility that are tailored to the location for maximum benefit.

**Authors:**

Annabel Knipe¹, Kellie Pendoley¹

¹Pendoley Environmental

Applying the Australian National Light Pollution Guidelines for Wildlife to develop best practice lighting design guidance for a proposed offshore oil and gas facility

**Abstract:**

On leeward Haleakalā, Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project and Auwahi Wind Project of AEP Energy Partners monitor endangered ʻUaʻu (Pterodroma sandwichensis, Hawaiian petrel), and collaborate to control predators in adjacent management areas. Together these sites form a buffer for the greater ʻUaʻu colony within Haleakalā National Park. Since monitoring began, the number of active burrows and reproductive success rates have increased. We present predator activity data and control efforts over 8 years of management. Although predator abundance is locally low, feral cats (Felis catus) and small Indian mongoose (Herpestes auropunctatus) freely traverse the landscape and target ʻUaʻu burrows. We suggest that the current approach of intensive predator control near nesting sites is marginally effective due to behavioral patterns and large home ranges of the predators. Predator activity is assessed through standardized surveys, and by monitoring game camera data from ʻUaʻu burrows. Traps are maintained near areas of high burrow density, and are deployed in response to predator activity on cameras. Despite successful trapping efforts, predators persist, and predation rates (depredated/breeding burrows; annual mean 20%) remain largely unchanged. We show that adopting new trapping technology and methodology can achieve improvements in capture rates; however, we expect the current, reactive strategy to remain limited to local and near-term predation suppression. In addition, budget and personnel are difficult to maintain as the colony continues to expand. A change toward a more landscape-level approach that addresses the behavioral ecology of the target species is needed to produce long-term and widespread effects.

**Authors:**

Martin Frye¹, Jennifer Learned¹, George Akau², Benjamin Campbell², Nuuanu Santos², Cecelia Frisinger¹, Jay Penniman¹

¹Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project, ²Auwahi Wind Project

Assessing the limitations of conventional predator control in Maui Nui: Re-envisioning the approach to protecting a unique seabird habitat

**Abstract:**

Seabirds are apex predators in the marine environment and well-known ecosystem engineers, capable of changing their habitats by introducing marine-derived nutrients via the deposition of their guano and other allochthonous inputs. However, with the health of the world's oceans under threat due to anthropogenic pressures such as organic, inorganic, and physical pollutants, seabirds are also introducing such pollutants to their breeding and roosting grounds. Here, we examine how the Flesh-footed Shearwater (Ardenna carneipes) has inadvertently introduced physical pollutants to their colonies on Lord Howe Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Tasman Sea and their largest breeding colony, through a mix of bolus deposition and carcasses containing plastic debris. The density of plastics within the shearwater colonies ranged between 1.32 and 3.66 pieces/m2 (mean ± SE: 2.18 ± 0.32), and a total of 688,480 (95% CI: 582,409e800,877) pieces are deposited on the island each year. Our research demonstrates that seabirds are a transfer mechanism for marine-derived plastics, reintroducing items back into the terrestrial environment, thus making seabird colonies a sink for plastic debris. This phenomenon is likely occurring in seabird colonies across the globe and will increase in severity as global plastic production and marine plastic pollution accelerates without adequate mitigation strategies.

**Authors:**

Megan Grant¹, Jennifer Lavers¹, Ian Hutton², Alexander Bond³

¹University of Tasmania, ²Lord Howe Island Museum, ³Natural History Museum

Seabird colonies are a minor sink for plastics

**Abstract:**

The Black-winged Petrel Pterodroma nigripennis established populations on Phillip Island off Norfolk Island, and the main island of the Lord Howe Island group, both in the South East Pacific, at approximately the same time in the late 1960s. Phillip Island is a degraded 190 ha landscape recovering from 200 years of browsing feral mammals. Lord Howe Island is a 1400 ha island which, until recently, was impacted by rodents. We monitored both colonies in recent years to examine the impacts of rodents on the Lord Howe Island population. Black-winged petrel populations were estimated, breeding success was determined by direct observation, foraging ranges were established using Global Location Sensors and the impacts of rodents on the seabirds was captured by surveillance cameras. Fifty years after establishment, population size differed by an order of magnitude between the two islands. Breeding success (eggs producing near-fledged chicks) was 50% on Phillip Island but only 3% on Lord Howe Island in areas baited for rodents and 0% in the absence of rodent control. Black rats Rattus rattus were seen to take eggs from nests under active incubation and solitary chicks aged up to approximately six weeks. There was substantial overlap in foraging ranges of breeding adults from both islands, even though their breeding sites are 900 km apart. So, while rat predation could not be confirmed as the sole cause of breeding loss, difference in foraging areas was not a contributory factor either. While breeding success is recovering on Lord Howe Island after rodent removal, the population will take decades before it reaches the levels currently experienced on Phillip Island.

**Authors:**

Terry O'Dwyer¹, Lisa O'Neill¹, Luke Halpin², Nicholas Carlile¹

¹NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, ²Monash University

The impact of black rats on the Black-winged petrel Pterodroma nigripennis: A tale of two islands

**Abstract:**

Mercury is a toxic, bioaccumulating trace metal whose emissions have recently been increasing and impacting even remote environments. Seabirds integrate bio-accumulative mercury via food intake. This is mainly deposited during the molting period in which the feathers are replaced annually, and the concentrations reflect the uptake and storage of mercury between molts. Here, we examine variation in marine mercury concentrations in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, by using seabirds' feathers. We collected primary, rectrix and breast feathers from three auk species with similar body masses (Rhinoceros Auklets Cerorhinca monocerata, Tufted Puffins Fratercula cirrhata, Atlantic Puffins Fratercula arctica) each may be subjected to different levels of mercury emissions in the Pacific (Middleton Island, USA; Teuri Island, Japan) and Atlantic (Skomer Island, UK), and tracked birds with light-level geolocators to obtain information about their non-breeding habitat. We measured mercury concentrations, then compared these concentrations with the birds' distribution obtained by geolocators, to test mercury contamination at individual levels. We discuss potential factors affecting the levels of mercury concentration among different species and locations.

**Authors:**

Chinatsu Nakajima¹, Kyle Elliott², Scott Hatch³, Shannon Whelan², Annette Fayet⁴, Yasuaki Niizuma⁵, Jumpei Okado⁶, Akiko Shoji¹

¹University of Tsukuba, ²McGill University, ³Institute for Seabird Research and Monitoring, ⁴Oxford University, ⁵Meijo University, ⁶Hokkaido University

Mercury contaminations and at-sea areas of three auk species, breeding across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans

**Abstract:**

Renewable energy deployments, including wind farms, are a key part of government strategies to mitigate the impacts of anthropogenic climate change. Wind farms, however, pose a potential collision risk to air-borne taxa, that may be influenced by the individual behaviour of species, flight altitude, speed and exposure time. Nevertheless, we have limited understanding of how species behave within wind farms, and lack empirical evidence for avoidance/attraction responses at different spatial scales. We used GPS telemetry and accelerometry to examine how adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus breeding at South Walney (Cumbria, UK) used offshore wind farms during the breeding season. The variation in spatial and temporal use of wind farms was first assessed across the years of study (2014-2019), within the breeding season (ca. March-August) and by time of day. We then used a range of classification methods to determine behaviour of birds, including Hidden Markov Models, Expectation-Maximization Binary Clustering, and accelerometry. Methods were also compared for their congruence in behavioural classification. A randomisation approach was used to investigate 3D avoidance and attraction to wind turbines at two different spatial scales: macro (wide-scale) avoidance of wind farms and meso (near-scale) avoidance of turbines. Birds frequently commuted through wind farms to reach foraging locations. However, many slower sinuous movements and 'stopped' behaviours were recorded around turbines and other associated platforms. Macro-avoidance was evident outside the wind farm, but varied spatially and weakened nearer to wind farms. Within wind farms, birds avoided the 3D rotor sweep volume of individual turbines, driven by a meso-avoidance response within and above the vertical rotor-sweep zone, but below this zone, birds exhibited attraction to turbine bases or platforms. These findings are providing robust site-specific collision estimates, in turn reducing uncertainty within impact assessments, and informing the conservation of a species that has experienced notable declines in coastal populations in recent years.

**Authors:**

Chris Thaxter¹, Daniel Johnston¹, Willem Bouten², Gary Clewley¹, Viola Ross-Smith¹, Nigel Clark¹, Elizabeth Masden³, Emily Scragg¹, Elizabeth Humphreys¹, Greg Conway¹, Lee Barber¹, Ros Green¹, Aonghais Cook¹, Niall Burton¹

¹British Trust for Ornithology, ²University of Amsterdam, ³Environmental Research Institute

How do gulls interact with offshore wind farms? Assessing avoidance and behaviour of lesser black-backed gulls using GPS telemetry and accelerometry

**Abstract:**

Identification of species assemblages is an essential step in understanding how the distributions of seabirds relate to their environment. Identification can support the generation of ecological hypotheses and inform the basis for conservation and management efforts. Australia supports a high diversity of seabirds, yet no large-scale assessment of seabird assemblages has been attempted. This study examines data from 1193 at-sea counts undertaken by the Australasian Seabird Group (ASG) in 2018 and 2019 during 6 trips off southeast Australia, and presents preliminary analyses of seabird assemblages and their relationships with environmental variables. Multivariate mixture models known as Region of Common Profiles (RCPs) were developed that identify environmental spaces ('regions') in which the probability of observing a set of species ('profiles') is constant within that region and different from others. Allocation of RCPs for a particular environmental space would permit the prediction of which set of species would have the highest probability of occurrence therein. We recorded 15640 individuals belonging to 53 species (34 used in RCP models, based on 3 or more occurrences). The model with three RCPs best fitted the survey data, although RCP 2 did not have a high probability for any predicted grid. These preliminary results identified coastal/near-shore (RCP 1) and oceanic/off-shore (RCP 3) assemblages. The oceanic RCP showed higher probabilities of membership for gadfly and Procellaria petrels and all Diomedea albatrosses. The coastal RCP had high membership probabilities for typical coastal taxa such as gulls, terns and gannets. The next steps will be to run RCP models to identify and describe seabird assemblages all the entire Australian coast, using more than 10,000 counts from the ASG database from 2016 to 2021.

**Authors:**

Nicholas Winterle Daudt¹, Eric Woehler², Matthew Schofield¹, Robert Smith¹, Leandro Bugoni³, Will Rayment¹

¹University of Otago, ²University of Tasmania, ³Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG

Describing seabird assemblages in Australia using model-based clustering analysis

**Abstract:**

Global population of Swhinhoe's strom-petrels (Hydrobates monorhis) breeds mainly in South Korea. Birds of the order Procellariiformes are vulnerable to marine plastic debris. We investigated the impact of marine plastic debris on Swhinhoe's strom-petrels of Procellariiformes in Korea. 169 carcasses were collected from two breeding colonies and one island in 2012~2014, 2016 and 2018. We analyzed plastic debris in crop, proventriculus and gizzard after dissecting individual birds. Most of Swinhoe's storm-petrels ingested plastic debris (93.7%). Individuals contained mean 18.73±13.41 pieces (up to 65 pieces) of plastic debris in their stomach. 87% of ingested plastic were microplastic (≤5㎜) in size. 40% of collected Swhinhoe's storm-petrels had more plastic than 0.1% of their average body mass. Types of ingested plastic were fragment (81.8%) and threadlike (11.7%) followed by and industrial pellet (2.3%), sheetlike (1.7%), foam (1.3%) and sphere (0.8%). Polymer types of ingested plastic were mainly PE and PP. In a breeding colony, we found a Swhinhoe's storm-petrel was entangled by a part of fishing net in its burrow. In conclusion, Swhinhoe's storm-petrels are affected by marine plastic debris as well in Korea. This study was supported by a grant "Development of technology for impact assessment of marine plastic debris on marine ecosystem (PE99914)" of Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology.

**Authors:**

Miran Kim¹, Mi-jin Hong¹, Ki-baek Nam², Young Soo Kwon³

¹Seabirds Lab. of Korea, ²Kyung Hee University, ³Korea National Park Research Institute

Impacts of marine plastic debris on Swinhoe's storm-petrels in Korea

**Abstract:**

The main threat to tākoketai/black petrel is at-sea, where they are accidentally caught by commercial and recreational fishers. In New Zealand, steps are being taken to reduce the risk from fishing to black petrels. However, young birds and adults spend a large part of their lives outside New Zealand, migrating to waters off the eastern tropical Pacific during the Southern Hemisphere winter. The lack of knowledge about their movement and behaviour while at-sea in international and South American waters limits the ability to assess overall threats to black petrels. It appears that the survival rates of juvenile black petrels are low compared to adults with very few of the banded fledglings being recaptured at their natal colony as fully grown breeding adults. The recent advent of smaller (<18 g) satellite tracking devices has made it possible to track the post-natal dispersal of juvenile black petrels once they leave the breeding colonies on Aotea/Great Barrier Island, and for the first time compare whether the dispersal behaviour and distribution of juvenile birds differs from those of adult birds. Following trials of four different models of satellite tracking devices in 2017, 14 Telonics TAV2618 devices were deployed on fledgling black petrels in April 2018. All 14 birds successfully fledged, and all immediately followed a similar eastward migration route across the Pacific. Incredibly most of the birds turned northwards at roughly the same position and headed to seas west of the Galapagos Islands. Three birds continued traveling to near to inshore waters of Ecuador, Colombia and Panama. The final transmitter stopped sending signals on 25 August 2018, five weeks beyond the expected life of the battery. Given that adult black petrels were found to heavily favour a relatively small sea area off the coast of Ecuador during winter months, but that black petrels are also known to range much more widely in the eastern Pacific, it is possible that juvenile black petrels have a much wider distribution in the eastern Pacific than adult birds.

**Authors:**

Elizabeth Bell¹, Patrick Crowe², Samantha Ray², Simon Lamb²

¹Ms, ²Wildlife Management International Ltd

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Across borders: External factors and prior behavior influence North Pacific albatross associations with fishing vessels

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