Tara Photography Competition
October 2022
This is a photography competition that is also a citizen science project – we want to source as many different photographs of tara (white-fronted terns) with prey in their beaks as possible! This will help us determine what prey are important at different times during the season – when they are courting and when they are feeding chicks. We’d like to develop a long-term project looking at change over different seasons – but that’s dependent on you.
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Catching exploits in France
(August 2022)
Chris Gaskin, the Trust's Project Coordinator and developer of net guns for catching seabirds at sea headed to France and joined the team for the National Plan of Action for the Balearic Shearwater. As a result of a winning international collaboration combining OFB, CNRS, LINKS, SKRAVIK crew, and Chris, thirty birds were captured in the Mor Braz, Brittany. Ten birds were equipped with GPS loggers to better understand their spatial and food ecology during their stay in the French waters of the Gulf of Gascoge and the Western Channel. Tracking since capture has seen birds returning to the Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands.
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Championing Seabirds
(July- August 2022)
Trustee and wildlife photographer Edin Whitehead has been talking about seabirds in three sessions on RNZ.
Our Changing World (with Jesse Mulligan) – Seabirds under threat
For the love of seabirds
Edin Whitehead: saving baby seabirds
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Bilingual seabird threats posters
(October 2021)
Working with cartoon artist extraordinaire Giselle Clarkson, Edin Whitehead (text) and Stephanie Tibble (Te Reo translations) the Trust has produced a set of eight bilingual posters on the Threats to Seabirds. These are being distributed to educational providers for use in working seabirds into their programmes.
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39 'wing beats' from extinction!
(October 2021)
Only 39 tara iti / New Zealand fairy terns remain in existence. This tiny population of Aotearoa New Zealand’s rarest endemic bird is maintained through intensive management from a dedicated team. But how sustainable is this?
Our report puts the spotlight on the state of seabirds in the wider Hauraki Gulf region.
State of Our Seabirds 2021
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Sedimentation effects on seabirds and shorebirds
(December 2021)
The known effects of marine sediment on New Zealand’s 87 breeding seabird species and 47 shorebird species are discussed in this report commissioned by DOC. Knowledge gaps are also highlighted.
Kerry Lukies is the lead author on this report, with Edin Whitehead and Chris Gaskin.
The report is available here
Open Ocean Aquaculture Guidelines
(October 2021)
Open ocean aquaculture is defined as “aquaculture outside of semi-enclosed bays and harbours or other sheltered locations around mainland New Zealand and larger offshore islands”. Dispersive open ocean environments are being targeted by aquaculture industry for fin-fish farms. The sustainable development of open ocean finfish farming in Aotearoa New Zealand requires robust and practical guidance for minimising and mitigating effects on seabirds.
