ACAP’s latest collaboration with Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature produces a new music video, the fifth since 2020

Two Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses fly past Gough Island, by ABUN artist, Deepti Singh, after photographs by Chris Jones and Laurie Smaglick Johnson

Since 2020 ACAP has collaborated with the international collective Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) to generate artworks depicting ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels in support of World Albatross Day, held each year 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

This year ACAP’s theme for “WAD2026” is “Habitat Restoration”.  It features 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.  ABUN Project #52 commenced on 16 February and ran to 03 May, resulting in 64 artworks illustrating the two chosen albatrosses by 37 artists, including several who produced more than one work.

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

To help 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 by World Albatross Day on the 19th of next month.

In support of the poster, Kitty has also produced a five and half minute video that depicts the 64 artworks, backed by evocative music entitled “The Peak” by musician John Nicolosi of Niko Records Studio, based in Clarksville, Tennessee, USA.

John Nicolosi, Niko Records Studio (front) and Christoph Hrdina, ABUN Co-founder, record the music for the ABUN video “Life for the Albatross” for World Albatross Day 2022

Five music videos illustrated with ABUN artworks have been produced by Kitty and John from 2020 to 2023.  They are "Flight of the Albatross" for the WAD2020 theme of  Eradicating Island Pests; "Petrels in Peril" in 2021; "The Seabird Wanderers of ACAP" for the WAD2021 theme of Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries; "Life for the Albatross" for the WAD2022 theme of Climate Change; and "Fidelity" for the WAD2023 theme of Plastic Pollution.  No music videos were produced for World Albatross Day in 2024 or 2025.

Creating a new colony.  Decoys and a speaker surrounded by a predator-proof fence have attracted two prospecting Laysan Albatrosses in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands in 2020, photograph from 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, John Nicolosi 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, 29 May 2026