At the 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Panama, which ended on Friday, the U.S. delegation proposed downlisting the short-tailed albatross from Appendix I to Appendix II (Prop. 10), even though the species is listed as “endangered” under U.S. and Hawaii law. Prop. 10 passed by consensus and the species was downlisted.

Earthtrust opposed Prop. 10 because this albatross species remains endangered and continues to satisfy the requirements of the Endangered Species Act and an Appendix I listing under CITES Article II paragraph 1 and other criteria.

Historically the short-tailed albatross was the most common albatross in the North Pacific Ocean and its population numbered in the millions, but by the 1940s it was thought to be extinct as a result of the feather trade. In 2008-2009 the global population of breeding individuals was estimated at only 2,572. In 2013-2014 it had declined to an estimated 1,928 breeding individuals, but the actual number today remains unknown.

There is no dispute that the short-tailed albatross continues to be threatened with extinction.

This species has approximately a 50-year life span, matures late and has a low reproductive output, laying at most a single egg each year that may or may not be viable. If it hatches, the chick often starves to death because it has been fed plastic marine debris by its parents. Nesting habitat is extremely limited and continues to diminish.

The breeding population on Torishima Island in Japan is currently the only confirmed colony to meet the recovery criteria of a three-year running average growth rate with greater than 50 breeding pairs, but the nesting habitat is subject to erosion, flooding and high winds. Most importantly Torishima is an active volcano that can destroy 40% or more of the nesting habitat in a single eruption, as it has done in the past. The Senkaku Islands colony is only assumed to meet the downlisting criteria with the estimated 2018–2019 population at 190 breeding pairs.

Only a single unsuccessful breeding pair returned to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands in 2022.

New threats to the short-tailed albatross that did not exist when this species was included in Appendix I in 1975 are:

1) Continuing loss of nesting and foraging habitat due to climate change, warming sea water and rising sea levels.

2) Chick mortality from ingesting plastic marine debris and adult mortality from the toxic effects of oil, metals, mercury and persistent organic pollutants.

3) An unknown number of breeding adults killed as by-catch by North Pacific longline fisheries to supply an ever increasing international demand for fish.

Both the quantity and quality of the global longline by-catch data is low and unreliable. By-catch of protected species such as the short-tailed albatross is rarely reported by fishers unless a government observer is on board the fishing vessel. While the United States longline fisheries may have reduced their by-catch of seabirds in the last 10-20 years, the mortality of short-tailed albatrosses due to by-catch by fisheries outside of U.S. waters is largely unknown and remains a serious threat to the survival of this species.

CITES Article II provides that “Appendix I shall include all species threatened with extinction which are or may be affected by trade,” not in trade. Although albatross feathers are no longer in trade to any great extent, an unknown number of short-tailed albatross are affected by the trade of fish caught by longline fisheries. Appendix II listing is for species in trade and has monitoring and reporting requirements.

Earthtrust believes that the U.S. delegation violated U.S. law when it submitted Prop. 10 and voted for the downlisting.

Kailua resident Linda M.B. Paul is international director of Earthtrust’s endangered species program.