64 artworks! ACAP and ABUN complete their seventh collaboration in support of World Albatross Day

“Borne to Soar” by ABUN artist Peter Shearer, a wildlife artist and photographer who resides in Wellington, New Zealand.  Using Procreate, it depicts Atlantic Yellow-nosed and Chatham Albatrosses breeding and flying against a backdrop of two breeding localities, Gough Island in the South Atlantic and The Pyramid in New Zealand

The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels is pleased to announce that its collaboration with the international collective Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for the seventh consecutive year has resulted in 64 artworks by 37 artists in support of World Albatross Day on 19 June, with its 2026 theme of “Habitat Restoration”.  This brings the total number of ABUN artworks in support of albatross conservation since 2020 to 760!

This year’s ABUN Project #52 initially ran from 16 February to 19 April, with an extension to accommodate late submissions until 03 May.  All these artworks can be viewed in a photo album on ACAP’s Facebook page.

Banner design for Project #52 by Kitty Harvill, with photographs by David Boyle, Chris Jones and Michelle Risi

ABUN artists were requested to produce works featuring two albatross species.  They are 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.

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, watercolour by 10-year-old Alankrita Dhawan, after a photograph by Alexis Osborne

By happy happenstance the overall 700th artwork is of an Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross entitled “Dreaming of Gough”, painted for Project #52 by ABUN’s Co-founder and long-time supporter of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement, Kitty Harvill (click here). Thirty-six artworks feature the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, and 28 the Chatham Albatross. Ten have come from children ranging in age from six to thirteen.

No. 700!  Kitty Harvill’s “Dreaming of Gough” depicts close-up of the head of an Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, painted in acrylics on canvas. Gough Island where the species breeds, is reflected in the bird’s eye, after a photograph by Chris Jones

 Between now and World Albatross Day on 19 June, ACAP Latest News will feature articles on some of the artists and their works. In addition, four artworks, two for each species, will be chosen to be made into posters that can be freely downloaded from this website.  A poster depicting all 64 artworks and a music video are also planned to wrap up yet another highly successful collaboration.

“Home, Sweet Home”.  Chatham Albatrosses on The Pyramid, by Maureen Bennetts, after a photograph by Lorna Deppe

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 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 fly repellents and sprinkler systems to improve breeding success.

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 who have contributed to Project #52.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 07 May 2026