Pacific Seabird Group (PSG) Website:

Pacific Seabird Group
(PSG)

Dedicated to the study of Pacific seabirds and their environment

The Pacific Seabird Group (PSG) is a society of professional seabird researchers and managers dedicated to the study and conservation of seabirds. PSG was formed in 1972 out of a need for increased communication among academic and government seabird researchers. The principal goals of PSG are (1) to increase the quality and quantity of seabird research through facilitating exchange of information and (2) to identify and assess the importance of threats to seabird populations and provide government agencies and others with expert advice on managing the threats and populations.
PSG is a member of the Ornithological Council and the American Bird Conservancy. PSG members include biologists, wildlife managers, students and conservationists from the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and 12 other countries. PSG annual meetings and publications provide forums where members can share their findings on all research topics relating to Pacific seabirds and discuss local and large scale conservation issues. The PSG is headed by an Executive Council including regional representatives.
OUR CONCERN IS SEABIRDS
The interest and concern of the PSG encompasses millions of birds of over 275 species--all related by their dependence on the ocean environment, but widely divergent in their natural histories and the problems they face. Pacific seabirds include representatives of 23 families, including penguins, loons, grebes, albatross, shearwaters, storm-petrels, boobies, pelicans, cormorants, frigatebirds, geese, ducks, puffins, murres, murrelets, auklets, guillemots, phalaropes, sandpipers, plovers, terns, jaegers, and tropicbirds.
Some Pacific seabirds are astonishingly numerous and wander widely over the seas. For example, millions of shearwaters that nest on islands off Australia and New Zealand annually migrate to feeding areas in the Bering Sea. These millions of shearwaters complement the arctic population of nesting seabirds that in Alaska alone may number over 40 million. Other species are uncommon or occur only in restricted areas. Several Pacific seabird species are endangered, including the Short-tailed Albatross and Dark-rumped Petrel. With increasing human development and pollution of the marine environment, the list of threatened and endangered species is growing. PSG members have worked hard to help the recovery of species like the brown pelican.
Although our knowledge is growing, our understanding of the ecology of Pacific seabirds is inadequate. We have yet to learn the most basic breeding biology of several species and the feeding ecology of most species is poorly known. Decades of research are still needed to understand the population dynamics of seabirds, as most are long-lived and reproduce slowly. Yet changes are swiftly coming to the seabirds world. Oil pollution, plastic in the ocean, fishery depletion's, are but a few threats that need addressing.
SEABIRDS FOR THE FUTURE - Protection and conservation of the great variety of fascinating seabirds of the Pacific Ocean is a challenge that will require the contributions, research, concern and dedication of many people from many countries if the diversity and numbers of seabirds are to be preserved

Pacific Seabird Group (PSG) Website:

Pocket Poster Guide to the Birds of Fiji - Sea and Shore Birds.

Pocket Poster Guide to the Birds of Fiji - Sea and Shore Birds. By Dick Watling

Reluctant to take your valued field guide into Fiji’s wet and humid forests or out to sea ? We certainly know the problem !

These could be the answer – a two part, pocket-sized (10x14cm) guide with a tough, laminated cover, cleverly designed and folded to be read as a book and opening out to the desired habitat.

Every breeding bird and regular migrant is illustrated in full colour and each bird has a paragraph of text with local names and identification and size information.

Otherwise fold out these posters to their full AO size for an informative wall chart or interpretive display.

Pelagic Birding in Australia: SOSSA...

SOSSA (Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association Inc.) was founded by members of the New South Wales Albatross Study Group (NSWASG) in 1994. It was set up to be an umbrella organisation for many study groups concerned with studies of Southern Ocean biodiversity.

SOSSA is a wildlife research and conservation group which consists of dedicated people both professional and amateur. These people share a common interest and concern for the environment and the wildlife of the Southern Oceans.

History: The New South Wales Albatross Study Group grew from the work of J.D. (Doug) Gibson, A.R.(Allen) Sefton and others, who began catching and marking wandering albatrosses at Bellambi NSW in 1956. Following the passing of Doug Gibson in 1984, the NSWASG based in the Illawarra continued under the guidance of Harry Battam who started banding albatrosses as an assistant to Bill Lane at Malabar in 1958.

A wandering albatross banded in August 1958 at Bellambi was found breeding on Bird Island, South Georgia, a sub-antarctic island in the South Atlantic Ocean in November 1958. The NSW Albatross Study Group had made its first mark. This original recovery was followed by several more, on the Crozet Archipelago (French) Prince Edward Island (South African), island groups of the South Indian Ocean and the Auckland and Antipodes Islands, to the south of New Zealand.

The NSW Albatross research is the longest continuous study of albatrosses anywhere in the world today.

Harry Battam is the team leader and for the past 20 years has been assisted by Lindsay E. Smith another dedicated naturalist. Lindsay's wife Janice has been working with the team constantly for the past 11 years.

Aims: SOSSA is an organisation whose aims are to encourage naturalists both amateur and professional to research the biodiversity of the Southern Ocean. SOSSA also aims to promote the use standard methodologies and the publication of all findings. SOSSA will assist study groups or individuals in the collection, preparation and presentation of data in a standard format. SOSSA is willing to assist other studies and has the resources and trained personnel that may be of benefit to small independent studies or organisations.

Projects: The projects and studies currently being undertaken by members of SOSSA are many and varied, several are being undertaken in conjunction with other organisations and scientific bodies, which include both local and overseas institutions.

See Projects page for more details.

Outside Australia, SOSSA has affiliations with the British Antarctic Survey, the New Zealand Department of Conservation, The Centre National de la Researche Scientifique (CNRS France) and the Percy Institute of Ornithology (South Africa).

If you are interested in joining SOSSA then please complete the MEMBERSHIP FORM and return it to SOSSA.

Pelagic Birding in Australia: SOSSA