The Island Invasives 2026 Conference “Charting the Future”, the fourth in the series, will be held at the University of Auckland, New Zealand over 9-13 February 2026.  A selected list by author and title of presentations extracted from the conference book of abstracts follows.  It should be of particular interest to those who follow efforts to conserve procellariiform seabirds on invaded islands.

Oral Papers

Dayana Alva, Sebastián Lozano-Sanllehi, Diego Gonzales-DelCarpio, Cinthia Irigoin-Lovera, Brenda Gordillo, Isabella Díaz-Santibañez, Sara Wang, Michael Polito, Carlos Zavalaga: Assessing the relationship between house mouse relative abundance and Peruvian diving-petrel hatching success on Isla La Vieja, Peru

Anton Wolfaardt, Keith Springer, Sue Tonin: Saving Marion Island’s seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion Project.  Advancing toward the eradication of house mice from a globally significant sub-Antarctic island

Sophie Thomas, Andrew Callender, Antje Steinfurth, Araceli Samaniego, Peter McClelland: Andrew Callender, Peter McClelland, Araceli Samaniego, Sophie Thomas: Building from failure: review, investigations and next steps towards eradicating mice from Gough Island: The attempted eradication of house mice (Mus musculus) from Gough Island and its immediate aftermath

Peter McClelland, Tane Davis: Eradications and biosecurity on the Titi islands southern New Zealand – empowering indigenous owners [Sooty Shearwater Ardenna grisea]

Al Glen, Joanna Carpenter, Paul Jacques, Rachael Sagar, Finlay Cox: Spatial and temporal variability in population parameters of island cats [Auckland Island]

Darryl Birch, Kristine Ward, Darcelle Matassoni: Eradications on inhabited islands.  Life after the rodent eradication project on Lord Howe Island, Australia

Sheri S. Mann, Patricia C Baiao, Joshua Atwood, Shane Siers, Mary Jo Mazurek, Alex Wegmann, Nick Holmes, Mele Khalsa, Pete McClelland, Clay Chow, Fia Moe, Dilek Sahin, Gregg Howald: The history of invasive species management and the conservation future of Lehua Island, Hawai’i

Stephen Horn, Finlay Cox, Rachael Sagar, Veronika Frank, Em Oyston, Jennifer Long: Building momentum: technical advances and planning implications for Maukahuka – pest free Auckland Island

Posters

Wesley Jolley, Jonathan Plissner, Elizabeth Flint, Jose Luis Herrera, Cielo Figuerola, Carmen Antaky, Pete McClelland, Chris Forster, Morgan Walter, Dan Rapp, Nick Holmes, Alex Wegmann, Jared Underwood: Midway seabird protection project: Overview and insights from an unsuccessful mouse eradication attempt

Finlay Cox, Rachael Sagar, Katie Ward-Allen, John Quigley, Jennifer Waite, Lyndsay Murray, Lynn Booth, Antoine Filion, Maddie Van De Wetering, Jennifer Rickett, Stephen Horn: Enabling island predator eradications with a readymade 1080 predator bait for New Zealand [Auckland Island]

Access information on plenary speakers and associated workshops here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 02 February 2026

A pipping Northern Royal Albatross egg in an artificial incubator (watch video)

The small Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi colony on New Zealand’s mainland in the Pukekura/Taiaroa Head Nature Reserve must be one of the most intensively managed seabird colonies anywhere in the world – at least outside attempts to establish new colonies by introductions.  New Zealanders are good at hands-on management, just read up on their successful (and ongoing) efforts to save the Vulnerable Black Robin Petroica traversi, the Critically Endangered Kakapo Strigops habroptilus and the Endangered South Island Takahe Porphyrio hochstetteri from looming extinctions.  Three examples, to which we can add the globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatross.

The Department of Conservation rangers at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head utilize a plethora of interventions to maximise breeding success.  Their hands-on approach with the birds extends throughout the whole breeding season.  These activities fit well with this year’s celebration of World Albatross Day (WAD2026) on 19 June and its theme of “Habitat Restoration”.  It is therefore intended to feature them in ACAP Latest News during the course of the 2025/26 breeding season.

To start off, the process followed with hatching eggs and hatchlings in their first week out of the shell is described here by way of captioned pictures.  This must be the most intensive time during the breeding cycle for the rangers and therefore seems  a good place to start.

To avoid fly strike harming chicks during hatching, which can take four to five days, pipping eggs are collected and placed in artificial incubators, while the apparently unconcerned bird receives a dummy egg.  Phlegmatism comes to mind!

 
At the same time the nest and surrounds are sprayed with a bird-safe insect repellent

Successfully out of its shell after three days in the incubator

Calm acceptance.  Once hatched, the chick is returned to the nest and the dummy egg is removed (watch video)

Department of Conservation rangers then conduct twice-daily health checks and weigh-ins for the first five days after hatching (watch video), followed by daily checks for the next five days, and then weekly weighing after that.  These measurements help confirm that the chick is growing as expected

 Upside down!  During weighing the chick can get a squirt of insect repellant.  Paper towels might be placed under the chicks to absorb moisture from rain

Happy family.  The mate returns from sea to feed its chick (watch video)

Watch one pair throughout the breeding season via the 24-hour Royal Cam.

Information and photographs by Sharyn Broni and the Department of Conservation from the Bird Cams and Royal Cam Albatross Group New Zealand Facebook pages.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 30 January 2026

An incubating Sooty Albatross on Gough Island in the South Atlantic, photograph by Michelle Risi

The Seabird Group of the United Kingdom is offering grants of up to UK£500 to individuals to help with costs associated with research projects.  Grants can cover travel, subsistence and equipment, but staff costs are excluded.  Priority will be given to Seabird Group members working on Atlantic seabirds.

Read more and how to apply from here.  Enquiries to Nina O'Hanlon at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The deadline is 28 February 2026.

ohn Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 29 January 2026

Removing plastic fragments from a Flesh-footed Shearwater stomach, photograph by Ian Hutton

Alex Bond (Bird Group, Natural History Museum, Tring, United Kingdom) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin on a study of plastic pollution in the Near Threatened Flesh-footed or Sable Shearwater Ardenna carneipes, a potential candidate species for ACAP listing.  They found no sex differences in frequency, mass, number, colour or type of ingested plastic.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Sex-based differences in plastic ingestion by wildlife are understudied.  Studies from the 1980s of birds shot at sea found no sex differences in plastic ingestion by post-fledging and adult birds, but nest-bound age classes remain unstudied.  We quantified plastic ingestion by 114 Sable Shearwaters (Ardenna carneipes) fledglings from Lord Howe Island, Australia, in 2023, and compared the frequency of ingestion, number of pieces, mass, and colour and type composition between sexes.  We found no difference in the frequency of plastic ingestion, the mass, number of pieces, colour, or type composition of ingested plastics between female and male fledglings.  There was no evidence of a sex ratio bias in the sampled population. The genetic sex of chicks is not a predictor of ingested plastics, but the potential for a biased sex ratio among chicks and adults could compound ongoing population declines.”

Reference:

Bond, A.L., Reynolds, J., de Jersey, A.M., Grant, M.L., Rivers-Auty, J., Griffin, C. & Lavers, J.L. 2026.  No evidence of sex differences in plastic ingestion by Sable Shearwater (Ardenna carneipes) chicks.  Marine Pollution Bulletin  225.  doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2026.119324.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 28 January 2026