Black-footed albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 10
Existing Protection or Other Status Designations
International conventions and agreements
Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994
The Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994 (MBCA) is the updated statute that implements the 1916 Migratory Birds Convention between Canada and the United States. The Family Diomedeidae is not listed in Article I of the Convention, but well-established policy dictates that albatrosses are protected under the MBCA by virtue of their inclusion in the Environment Canada document entitled Birds Protected in Canada under the Migratory Birds Convention Act (CWS 1991; Grigg pers. comm. 2006).
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
This species is not listed by CITES (CITES 2006).
Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)
Black-footed Albatross is listed under Appendix II of the CMS or Bonn Convention (ARKive 2004). The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) is a daughter agreement of the Bonn Convention. ACAP is currently considering ways in which it would be able to evaluate proposals for the addition of new species to its Annex that might be received in the future. As part of this exercise a preliminary assessment of all the procellariiform species has been undertaken (Cooper and Baker 2006) and will be developed further (ACAP Secretariat 2006). The Black-footed Albatross was one of the species that was considered in this evaluation process, along with the other two North Pacific albatrosses.
Federal and provincial legislation
British Columbia Wildlife Act
As a species of bird protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act, the Black-footed Albatross also receives protection via the British Columbia Wildlife Act.
Canadian national legislation
Black-footed Albatross is protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994 (see International agreements, above). As the Black-footed Albatross is protected under this Act, it is illegal to capture or kill the species without a permit.
US Endangered Species Act
The Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, through the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, received a petition on 28 September 2004 from Earthjustice, on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network, to list the Black-footed Albatross as a threatened or endangered species and to designate critical habitat to ensure its recovery under Section 4(b) the US Endangered Species Act and Section 553(3) of the Administrative Procedures Act (Earthjustice 2004). This petition is now under review by the USFWS and a finding is expected later in 2006 (Freifeld pers. comm. 2006).
Status designations
National and sub-national designations
The Black-footed Albatross is Yellow-listed by the British Columbia Conservation Data Centre (BC CDC 2005) and is provincially ranked as SNA (i.e., Sub-national rank Not Applicable). NatureServe ranks the taxon as G3G4 with a US national rank of N4N5B and sub-national ranks as follows: Alaska – S5N, Hawaii – S3S4, Oregon – SNA, Washington – S3N (last reviewed November 2002; NatureServe 2006).
In the State of Hawaii, the species is listed as Threatened under state legislation, while in Mexico the Black-footed Albatross is listed as Amenazada (Threatened) by the Mexican Instituto Nacional de Ecología (INE 2005), a branch of Mexico’s environmental protection agency.
IUCN Red List
In 2003, the IUCN uplisted the Black-footed Albatross from Vulnerable to Endangered (EN A3bd) on the basis of a projected future population decline >60% over the next three generations (i.e., 56 years), based on the estimated rate of incidental mortality from demersal and pelagic North Pacific longline fisheries (BirdLife International 2004a,b).
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