The seventh art collaboration with ABUN in support of World Albatross Day ends with a collage poster

Collage poster design for ABUN Project #52 “Habitat Restoration” by Co-founder Kitty Harvill

The international collective Artists and Biologists for Nature (ABUN) has contributed to the conservation of ACAP-listed species every year since 2020 by running an annual project where contributing artists produce artworks to mark World Albatross Day on 19 June.  Over the seven years no less than 760 artworks illustrating all 31 ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels have been created, using photographs made available by ACAP supporters to act as inspiration.

For this year’s project, ABUN’s 52nd, artists were requested to produce works featuring the Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos, endemic to the Tristan da Cunha islands, part of the United Kingdom Overseas Territory of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, and the Vulnerable Chatham Albatross Thalassarche eremita, endemic to The Pyramid, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.

Project #52 commenced on 16 February and ran to 03 May, has been in support of the World Albatross Day theme for 2026 of “Habitat Restoration”.  It has resulted in 64 artworks by 37 artists, including several who produced more than one work.  They will be used by ACAP to support “WAD2026” until the actual day on 19 June – and thereafter

Kitty Harvill with “Dreaming of Gough”, her painting in acrylics on canvas of a close-up of the head of an Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross for ABUN Project #52.  Gough Island where the species breeds, is reflected in the bird’s eye, after a photograph by Chris Jones

To round off the project, ABUN Co-founder Kitty Harvill has produced a collage poster depicting all the artworks created to support WAD2026.  The artworks themselves may be viewed and downloaded from a photo album on ACAP’s Facebook page.  Five of them have been chosen to be made into posters that will become available for downloading from this website between now and World Albatross Day.

Habitat Restoration in action.  An adult Laysan Albatross (at the rear) has been attracted to visit the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on the Hawaiian island of Oahu by the presence of two decoys and a speaker broadcasting calls within a predator-proof fence.  Photograph by Lindsay Young, Pacific Rim Conservation

The WAD2026 theme of Habitat Restoration includes such management activities as eradication or control of introduced plants and animals at breeding sites, provision and maintenance of predator-proof fences, establishment of new breeding colonies by attraction techniques such as use of decoys and sound systems and translocations of eggs and chicks, candling and substituting infertile with fertile eggs, placement of artificial nests, supplementary feeding and hydration of chicks and adults, artificial incubation during hatching, and the use of artificial nests, wind breaks, fly repellents and sprinkler systems to improve breeding success.  You can search for projects among over 850 that utilize such management activities on the Seabird Restoration Data Base.

ACAP’s logo for World Albatross Day is available in landscape and portrait versions in the ACAP official languages of English, French and Spanish, as well as in Portuguese.  Designed by Namo Niumim, they are available for downloading here.

The WAD2026 theme follows on from the inaugural theme “Eradicating Island Pests” in 2020, “Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries” in 2021, “Climate Change” in 2022, “Plastic Pollution” in 2023, Marine Protected Areas” in 2024 and “Effects of Disease” in 2025, all of which have been supported by ABUN Projects.

With grateful thanks to ABUN Co-founder, Kitty Harvill and to all the artists and photographers who have contributed to Project #52.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 20 May 2026