Seabirds are among the most threatened groups of birds because they face challenges both at their breeding sites and at sea. Almost one-third of all seabirds are on the global IUCN Red List. The FitzPatrick’s Seabird Research Programme assesses the severity of threats faced by seabirds and attempts to reduce these threats. Southern Ocean species are mainly threatened at sea by fisheries-related mortality and climate change and on land by invasive species – although the additional threat of climate change on land is only just beginning to be understood. Monitoring seabirds provides a window into the health of the Southern Ocean.

Most fieldwork takes place through the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) at the Prince Edward Islands, Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island and Antarctica. Fitz seabird research on Marion Island, the larger of the two Prince Edward Islands, commenced in the 1970s. John Cooper initiated a series of seabird study colonies in the early 1980s. In 2024, the long-term monitoring of albatrosses and petrels at Marion Island was taken over by SAPRI, the South African Polar Research Infrastructure, but the Fitz remains involved in guiding this work. In both 2024 and 2025, Fitz and SAPRI field assistants worked closely together to manage the fieldwork for the long-term monitoring programmes and the Fitz research data collection. Monitoring at Gough Island was taken over by the RSPB some years ago, but no field team was sent to the island in 2025, ending more than 20 years of continuous monitoring of selected seabird species at this island.

A/Prof. Susie Cunningham and Emer. Prof. Peter Ryan were awarded a three-year research grant through SANAP for 2024–2026 to assess the impacts of climate change on surface-nesting seabirds at Marion Island. Progress in 2024/25 was impeded by the arrival of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) at Marion Island, which prevented experimental manipulations of giant petrel chicks. Fortunately, there have been no signs of infected birds so far in the 2025/26 season, allowing ecophysiology work on thermoregulation and hydration status in giant petrels to proceed. Fitz field assistant Avumile Bawuli successfully completed the challenging fieldwork required for Northern Giant Petrels Macronectes halli in the second half of 2025, collecting simultaneous datasets on body temperature, water turnover, and thermoregulatory behaviour in 16 chicks. He also began this work for Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus, which breed later in the summer. 

Tragically, several of the Southern Giant Petrel chicks Avumile was working with, as well as others in their vicinity, died during an exceptionally hot spell in the final week of December 2025. During the same heatwave, there was a mortality event among Grey-headed Albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma chicks on nests near the top of the Grey-Headed Ridge monitoring colony in the south of the island. The data Avumile was collecting at the time will help us understand whether these seabird chicks succumbed to heat stress or dehydration during this subantarctic heatwave, with implications for conservation management planning as weather conditions like these become more common under climate change.

Activities in 2025

  • In April–May, Vanessa Stephen was replaced by Avumile Bawuli as field assistant on the SANAP project assessing the impacts of climate change on surface-nesting seabirds at Marion Island. Avumile continued the deployment of temperature loggers and cameras around the island to record behavioural responses to extreme temperature events.
  • In late 2025, experiments to assess water turnover in giant petrel chicks on Marion Island, which had had to be shelved when HPAI affected birds on the island in the summer of 2024/25, were conducted by Avumile.
  • Paired ambient and environmental temperature loggers deployed at different elevations on Gough Island in 2024 continued to collect comparative data to that from Marion Island from the northernmost breeding site for giant petrels.
  • PhD student Kim Stevens was awarded a Schifferli scholarship to spend three months at Vogelvarte in Switzerland, working with Dr Steffen Oppel to develop an integrated population model for Grey-headed Albatrosses. Preliminary findings indicate that low juvenile survival may be a problem for this species breeding on Marion Island.
  • PhD student Danielle Keys (NMU), supervised by Prof. Pierre Pistorius, Dr Chris Oosthuizen and Peter Ryan, was awarded her PhD for her study of foraging behaviour and demographic responses in Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans on Marion Island.
  • Peter Ryan again led visits to two Emperor Penguin Aptenodytes forsteri colonies, Astrid and Lazarev, in central Dronning Maud Land. Drone flights made by David Sinclair under permit from the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) allowed accurate chick counts. A paper summarising the status of Emperor Penguins in the region is being prepared with Dr Barbara Wienecke from the AAD.
     

Highlights

  • Avumile Bawuli collected the first ever body temperature data from Northern and Southern Giant Petrel chicks – an incredible effort in the field.
  • Twelve papers on Southern Ocean seabirds and their conservation were published by team members in 2025, and one more was in press at year-end. These included two papers in CCAMLR Science and an outcome report on the strategic approach for identifying areas for spatial protection using pelagic ecoregionalisation in the Indian Subantarctic.
  • Prof. Newi Makhado remained a member of the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) Steering Committee and the Southern Indian Ocean Sector (SOIS) Regional Working Group. In 2025, he served as the scientific advisor and South Africa's scientific representative in the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) and continued to serve on the CCAMLR General Capacity Building Fund committee. Newi is also on the steering committee and a founder member of the Pelagic High Seas Ocean Ecoregionalisation of the Indian Subantarctic (PHOCIS) project, which examines pelagic ecoregionalisation in the subantarctic Indian Ocean.
  • Newi presented at the CCAMLR Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management (WG-EMM) in the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, and elsewhere, and at the CCAMLR Scientific Meeting in Australia.
  • Prospective PhD student Christopher Jones (registering in 2026) presented preliminary results on Grey-headed Albatross nestling survival in relation to temperature on Grey-Headed Ridge, Marion Island, at the 7th SANAP Research Symposium at Kwalata Game Reserve in November.
     

Key co-supporters
Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP); ACE Foundation; CNRS; European Union; Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB); South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP); South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI); WWF Australia; Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).

Research team 2025
Emer. Prof. Peter Ryan (FIAO, UCT)
Dr Maëlle Connan (NMU)
A/Prof. Susie Cunningham (FIAO, UCT)
Prof. Azwianewi Makhado (Oceans & Coasts, DFFE)
Prof. Pierre Pistorius (NMU) 
Prof. Res Altwegg (SEEC, UCT) 
Dr Theresa Burg (U. Lethbridge) 
Dr Sarah Converse (U. Washington)
Dr Steffen Oppel (RSPB)
Dr Richard Phillips (British Antarctic Survey) 
Dr Janine Schoombie (U. Pretoria)
Dr Stefan Schoombie (SEEC, UCT)
Mr Yinhla Shihlomule (SAPRI)
Dr Barbara Wienecke (AAD)
Prof. Rory Wilson (Swansea U.)

Student:
Kim Stevens (PhD, UCT)

Field assistants:
Vanessa Stephen (FIAO field assistant Marion 2024/25); Avumile Bawuli (FIAO field assistant Marion 2025/26); Jana Rau (SAPRI field assistant Marion 2025/6); Andile Kuzwayo (SAPRI field assistant Marion 2025/6).

Volunteers:
The following Marion Island field assistants on several other research and monitoring projects, as well as Marion Base personnel, helped Avumile with the challenging ecophysiology work on giant petrels: Andile Mdluli, Dr Vonica Perold, Mndeni Hlatshwayo, Abdul Jacobs, Kwanele Kuzwayo, Martin Tshimange, Gcobani Tshangana, Zabilion Lemena, Brenda Khobo, Sanele Mkhize, Mfezeko Rataza, Roelf Darling, Heinrich Benz.