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Australasian Seabird Group |
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The ASG was formed in 1971 (as the Australian Seabird Group) with its stated objective to promote seabird research in Australia through:
- Investigating and mapping offshore seabird colonies
- Organising and collecting information on beach-washed seabirds
- Investigating the activities of birds at sea
- Maintaining a list of people within Australia known to be interested in seabirds
The PastOver the next 16 years its members made efforts in all these areas, the only change to the above aims being the expansion of the scope of the Group from Australia to Australasia. 26 newsletters were published, containing behavioural observations, reviews, long articles and short notes, sightings of rarities and identification tips, surveys of islands and along shipping routes, as well as much editorial material. References to the ASG Newsletter in the first volume of HANZAB pay tribute to the wealth of original data garnered by Group members. Special issues were produced, the last of which, in 1987, was an index to Sea Swallow, the journal of the Royal Naval Birdwatching Society.
Beach Patrol ProjectThe Birds Australia Beach Patrol scheme has used regular patrols of our coastline for beachcast seabirds in an effort to discover what is happening to the populations of seabirds in Australasian seas and the Southern Ocean, as well as of their seasonal movements and causes of mortality. The aims and methodology of this project are under review; there is the potential for beach patrollers to monitor oceanic pollution by oil spills and plastic debris, and to census breeding shorebirds, as well as compiling indices of seabird mortality.
Seabird AtlasThe Seabird Atlas of South-eastern Australian Waters was published in 2002. Australia's first seabird atlas is based on over 42,000 records of 80 species collected on more than 70 oceanic cruises. It covers about 90% of the area off the coasts of south-eastern South Australia, southern New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, as far as 49 degrees South.
The data is presented graphically as maps of relative abundance in one-degree blocks, and also in terms of seasonal distribution. The associated database forms an invaluable resource for future comparisons, in order to determine trends in seabird distribution and numbers. It will also serve as a model for similar atlases covering other seas and coasts in the Region.
ConservationThere are many serious problems facing seabirds today. One of the most urgent of these is the catastrophic decline of some albatross populations in the Southern Ocean as a direct result of mortality from the Southern Bluefin Tuna longline fishery. Some breeding populations, and possibly entire species, face extinction within a few years if nothing is done to prevent birds being hooked and drowned on the tuna longlines.
Other problems include marine pollution, human persecution and disturbance, and the introduction of feral predators to breeding islands. A more long-term concern is that global climate change may affect the numbers and distribution of prey. One of the most important tasks of the new ASG will be to make governments and the community aware of such threats and to recommend ways of dealing with them.
The Future The ASG was then inactive until the December 1993 Congress on Seabirds in Hobart, Tasmania, where it was revitalised. Since then it has been publishing the Australasian Seabird Bulletin twice a year.
 ASG Membership Form (68kb)
ASG Website |
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Fairy Prion running on water © Dean Ingwersen
Northern Giant Petrel © Dean Ingwersen
Yellow-nosed Albatross © Dean Ingwersen
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