Hōkūpaʻa five days before fledging, photograph by Hob Osterlund

Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis breed in several localities along the northern shore of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, from the Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands through Princeville, private lands to the Kilauea Point Nature Reserve.  The following text reporting a new breeding locality on the island is extracted from an article by Hob Osterlund, founder of the Kauaʻi Albatross Network, a Safina Center Conservationist-in-Residence and a long-term supporter of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement, that gives information of a new breeding locality on the island's southern shore.

“On July 9, 2025, a mōlī (Laysan albatross) chick fledged (flew for the first time) from the hotel grounds of the Point at Poʻipu on Kauaʻi.  She was just over five months old.  True to form, others of the roughly 250 chicks on the island had also started fledging.  But something set this particular chick apart.

Never in recorded history has there been a successful mōlī nest in Poʻipū, or anywhere on the south shore.  Locals report having seen albatross in flight and in courtship on the ground.  But no one (so far) could remember a chick growing up there.

Mōlī likely nested on many islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago for thousands—if not millions—of years. But on the islands where humans arrived with predators such as cats, dogs, rats and pigs, mōlī nesting would have disappeared. Kuaihelani (Midway) Atoll remains the mōlī mother ship—more than one thousand miles northwest of Kauaʻi—where this year there were 620,000 mōlī nests. Itʻs the largest colony of any albatross species in the world."

Hōkūpaʻa near its nest site, photograph by Hob Osterlund

"In modern history, a few intrepid mōlī attempted nesting at Barking Sands and Kīlauea Point. A 1980 article in the ʻElepaio Journal of the Hawaiʻi Audubon Society described a total of thirty albatross eggs between 1974-1980.  Almost all were predated [sic], abandoned or vandalized.  Three chicks did fledge in 1979, but only because of a temporary fence at Kīlauea Point.  Zero chicks fledged from Barking Sands.

Since those days, predator protection on Kauaʻi has unevenly improved and the mōlī population has gradually grown. This nesting season Kauaʻi started out with three hundred and ninety-four known nests, not including ninety-three on Lehua Islet. As of late June, those nearly four hundred nests had produced two hundred and fifty chicks.”

In the previous season a Laysan Albatross pair laid an egg at Poʻipu, but it did not hatch, so this season’s carefully protected fledgling, named Hōkūpa’a (Hawaiian for Polaris, the north star) is the first known from Kauai’s south shore."

Read the full article, containing two video clips of the chick wing flapping and of the fledgling taking flight by Hob Osterlund, here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 22 July 2025

A splendid Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus cake addressing the WAD2025 theme of “Effects of Disease” formed part of the morning tea celebration of World Albatross Day by the Australian Antarctic Division on 19 June 2025, photograph by Jonathon Barrington

World Albatross Day was first celebrated on 19 June 2020.  To help create awareness a cake-baking competition was held that proved popular with no less than 72 cakes entered into the “Great Albicake Bake Off”.  Since then, baking and displaying “albicakes” has continued on 19 June each year, notably by the Australian Antarctic Division and the Royal Albatross Centre in New Zealand.

An albicake of a Tristan Albatross created and photographed by Michelle Risi (front row right) on Gough Island as a member of the 70th South African Overwintering Team

In the hope that baking cakes with an albatross theme on World Albatross Day will develop into a full-blown tradition around the world, to complement the displaying of banners, here is a portfolio of albicakes produced, and I am sure eaten, for this year’s day and its theme “Effects of Disease”.

The Royal Albatross Centre continued its tradition of baking a cake depicting a life-sized Northern Royal Albatross in flight

The Mouse-Free Marion Project cheated with a shop-bought chocolate cake in Cape Town.  Left and right, John Cooper and Robyn Adams (MFM Project), centre Andrea Angel (Albatross Task Force), along with John’s Laysan and Wandering Albatross plushies, photograph by Reason Nyengera

More albicakes on display at the Australian Antarctic Division on 19 June 2025, photographs by Jonathon Barrington and Wendy Pyper

The ACAP Secretariat has started to give thought as to what might be the theme for “WAD2026”.  Perhaps there should be a repeat of the Great Albicake Bake Off”?  Watch this space for an announcement in due course!

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 21 July 2025

White-chinned Petrels moulting 4–5 inner primaries at the start of primary moult also replace most of their greater secondary coverts before the start of secondary moult, photographs by Peter Ryan (from the publication)

Oluwadunsin Adekola and Peter Ryan (FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, South Africa) have published open access in the Journal of Avian Biology on flight feather moult in 2431 White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis killed by fisheries off South Africa.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The cost of moult is substantial, and the timing and intensity of flight feather moult can influence survival and fitness, especially in large, long-winged species such as many seabirds. We explore variation in wing and tail moult in > 2400 white-chinned petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis killed in fisheries off southern Africa to assess how they integrate moult into their annual cycle and whether wing moult impacts their behaviour at sea. All petrels showed a simple descendent primary moult and one active moult centre, although moult of P2–3 sometimes started before P1. The Underhill–Zucchini moult model estimated that adult primary moult started after breeding on 7 May (± 8 days SD) and lasted 103 days (mean end date 20 August ± 10 days). Adult males started and finished moult 10 days before females. Immature petrels started primary moult earlier than adults, and their moult was probably more protracted as they moulted fewer primaries at once (1.9 ± 1.2) when compared to adults (2.3 ± 1.1), independent of sex. Adult moult was particularly intense in the inner primaries, growing up to six feathers at once, slowing to at most 3–4 outer primaries. The secondary moult started two weeks after the primary moult, once 3–4 primaries had been dropped. Secondary moult typically started with the innermost secondaries, plus inward waves from S1 and S5 in 2.7 ± 1.3 active moult centres (range 1–6), replacing 4.6 ± 2.7 (1–13) secondaries at once. Adults had more intense secondary moult (4.7 ± 2.8 growing feathers) than immatures (3.6 ± 2.3), with no difference between the sexes. However, photographs of non-moulting birds at sea show that 27% of birds do not replace all secondaries each year. The tail moult usually commenced at the start of the secondary moult and was highly variable, with 1–12 rectrices growing at once. Adults had more active centres (3.0 ± 1.4) than immatures (2.3 ± 1.0). Moult symmetry was greater among the primaries (84%) than either the secondaries (46%) or rectrices (68%). Although adult wing moult was intense, there was no marked reduction in flight activity among breeding adults fitted with leg-mounted activity loggers during the moult period. Our findings are largely in accord with previous studies of moult in petrels, but our large sample size reveals considerable variation among individuals, which is surprising given the high cost of moult. Future studies should attempt to investigate the factors determining this variation.”

Reference:

OAdekola, O.E. & Ryan, P.G. 2025.  Variation in wing and tail moult intensity in white-chinned petrels.  Journal of Avian Biology doi.org/10.1111/jav.03327.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 18 July 2025

 Breeding colonies of White-chinned Petrel (open circles) in the south Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Colonies where samples were collected are indicated by a star (from the publication)

Viviane Barquete (FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems on the origins of White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis killed by longline fisheries.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Incidental capture (bycatch) of seabirds in longline and trawl fisheries is one of the main threats to many albatrosses and large petrels.  The White-chinned Petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) has a circumpolar distribution and is the seabird species killed most frequently by fisheries in the Southern Ocean.  In an attempt to identify provenance, stable isotope values (δ13 C and δ15 N) in feathers from White-chinned Petrels killed in longline fisheries off Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand were compared with those from petrels breeding at five major colonies (South Georgia, Prince Edward, Crozet, Kerguelen and Antipodes Islands).  Feather δ15 N, and to a lesser extent, δ13 C values in feathers differed among breeding birds sampled at South Georgia, Antipodes Islands and the three Indian Ocean colonies.  Given that adult feathers are moulted primarily in temperate waters, away from heir colonies, this confirms that most adults from these three regions winter in different areas.  Discriminant function analysis of stable isotope values indicated that most petrels killed off Brazil and South Africa were from Atlantic and Indian Ocean populations, respectively.  Birds killed in New Zealand fisheries in summer were assigned to populations from all three oceans, with few assigned to the Antipodes; however, we lacked stable isotope data from the Auckland Islands, which is the most likely source population.  Identifying the origin of bycaught birds is essential for determining which populations are affected by human activities and for prioritising conservation efforts.  This includes targeting of mitigation regulations, monitoring of compliance and bycatch rates, and ensuring cooperation between breeding and non-breeding range states to ensure best practices are adopted in national fisheries and in the high seas.”

With thanks to Sandy Bartle.

Reference:

Barquete, V., Cherel, Y. Phillips, R.A., Thompson, D., Chilvers, B.L., Wanless, R.M. & Ryan, P.G. 2025.  Using stable isotopes to assign origin of White-Chinned Petrels killed by longline fisheries.  Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70182.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 17 July 2025