Peregrine Adventures
Antarctic expedition cruise operator Peregrine Adventures and WWF-Australia are working collaboratively in a partnership that primarily focuses on albatross conservation.
The partnership is supported by funds raised through passenger and staff donations on board Peregrine ships in Antarctica. It has involved 3 key initiatives:
- Save Macquarie Island Campaign (2006-07)
- Bioregionalisation Report of the Southern Ocean (2006)
- International Cooperation for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (2004-05)
Save Macquarie Island
This year, Peregrine Adventures and WWF-Australia have stepped in with $100,000 to urgently kick start key parts of a plan to eradicate rabbits and rodents from the World Heritage-listed Macquarie Island, which is critical to the future survival of the island's albatross and other seabirds.
The Tasmanian Government has developed a $15 million plan to eradicate rabbits, rats and mice, but they have failed to give it the green light. Agreement to fund the eradication plan by the federal and Tasmanian state governments will lead to the eradication of rabbits and rodents from Macquarie Island - and the rehabilitation of key albatross and petrel populations that face extinction if the plan is not implemented by winter 2007.
Severe overgrazing caused by over 100,000 rabbits is causing landslides that are destroying seabird nesting habitat on Macquarie Island. Rats also attack nests to eat eggs and kill both adult birds and chicks. The rabbit population has exploded since the removal of feral cats from the island.
Bioregionalisation of the Southern Ocean
In 2006 Peregrine funded the joint WWF/ACE/Peregrine Bioregionalisation Workshop and Report, which mapped - for the first time - the different ecological zones of the Southern Ocean - representing 10 per cent of the world's oceans, and an area the size of Russia.
In September 2006, twenty-three scientists from six countries attended an Experts Workshop on Bioregionalisation of the Southern Ocean held in Hobart, Australia. The workshop was designed to assist with the development of methods that might be used to partition the Southern Ocean for the purposes of large-scale ecological modeling, ecosystem-based management, and consideration of marine protected areas.
International Cooperation for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels
Involving WWF offices in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, the International Cooperation for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels project included the following outcomes:
- Successful trials of integrated line-weighting as a means of reducing by-catch
- The implementation of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatross and Petrels (ACAP)
- WWF advocacy in relation to the New Zealand Southern Ocean squid fishery
- Developing new technologies for satellite tracking
- Mitigating seabird mortality through CCAMLR
- Reducing the global impact of IUU fishing
- Working to eliminate use of South African ports by IUU fishing vessels
