For the seventh year running, the Albatross and Petrel Agreement has collaborated with the international collective Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) to produce artworks in celebration of World Albatross Day on 19 June; this year with the theme “Habitat Restoration”.  This time, ABUN artists were asked 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.

A total of 64 artworks was submitted, from which ABUN Co-founder, Kitty Harvill, has produced a collage poster depicting them all, and a music video co-produced with John Nicolosi (which also includes photographs that inspired the artists).  Five of these artworks illustrating both species by different artists have been chosen to illustrate posters marking World Albatross Daym as shown above and below.

The posters have been loaded as high-resolution versions to the website here for free downloading, printing and display.  It is intended to produce versions in French and Spanish.

With thanks to Kitty Harvill, the five ABUN poster artists, Lois Davis, Georgia Field, Deepti Jain, Anju Rajesh and Peter Shearer, and Ruth Cooper.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 15 May 2026, updated 16 May 2026

 Black-footed Albatross E555 is being reared by translocated parents in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge. Two decoys are behind and the chick stands in front of a wooden shelter, photograph from Pacific Rim Conservation

The theme for this year’s World Albatross Day on 19 June is Habitat Restoration, which covers a suite of activities including creating new breeding colonies by translocation efforts and improving the breeding success of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels.

The environmental NGO, Pacific Rim Conservation, has been using multiple techniques to create a new breeding locality, safe from predicted sea level rise, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.  Chicks of both Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses have been collected from existing colonies and hand-reared within a predator-proof fence in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge.  Decoys and sound systems have been used to attract both wild-reared adults and returning hand-reared birds as regularly reported in ACAP Latest News.  The very latest information comes in time to mark World Albatross Day this Friday, as reported on Pacific Rim Conservation’s Facebook Page.

“Meet E555, the offspring of our superstar translocated ka‘upu (Black-footed Albatross) pair, V666 and V434.  From 2017-2021, we translocated more than 100 ka‘upu chicks from Tern Island and Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge.  By late 2025, 35 translocated ka‘upu had returned to JCNWR as adults, and we expect that number to keep rising!

In [2023/24], V666 and V434 made history by successfully raising and fledging their first chick, E999 - the first wild ka‘upu to fledge from Oʻahu in more than 400 years! [click here].

Now, their second chick, E555, is growing up fast and looking strong within the safety of a predator-exclusion fence.”

It seems a new colony for Black-footed Albatrosses is well on its way, so congratulations to Pacific Rim Conservation.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 14 June 2026

 BirdLife Australia’s three-part 2026 Seabird Webinar Series will showcase current seabird research and conservation action, with sessions aligned to major global awareness days, starting with World Albatross Day on 19 June.  The series will feature a range of speakers working on habitat restoration, cross-border conservation and the application of scientific data to seabird protection.  “From restoring breeding habitats on remote islands to tracking seabirds to understand their marine habitats, this series brings together leading conservation practitioners and researchers working to secure a future for seabirds”.

Fittingly, on World Albatross Day, the first session will address the WAD2026 theme of Habitat Restoration.  “It will share real-world examples of how healthier nesting habitats can improve breeding success for albatrosses and other seabirds, and why long-term restoration is essential for seabird conservation”.

Keith Springer, Operations Manager, Mouse-Free Marion Project

The World Albatross Day session’s two speakers and their titles are:

Keith Springer, Operations Manager, Mouse-Free Marion Project: “Managing vertebrate pests on seabird breeding colonies in the Southern Ocean”, and

Yuna Kim, Seabird Project Coordinator, BirdLife Australia: “Gabo Island seabird habitat restoration plan”.

Yuna Kim, Seabird Project Coordinator, BirdLife Australia, holds a White-winged Petrel

Register here; the webinar session is set to last an hour, commencing at 18h00 AEST.

The two following sessions will be on “Working across Borders: Connecting People and Seabirds” on World Seabird Day (03 July) and “Using Scientific Data to Protect Seabirds” on World Nature Conservation Day (28 July).  All three sessions are now open for registration.

With thanks to Yuna Kim.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 13 June 2026

Adams Island, showing the Study Area (61 ha); the three census blocks in which counts of breeders have historically been made: Amherst to Astrolabe (A to A; 101 ha), Rhys’s Ridge (67 ha), and Fly Square (25ha); and the fourth census block added in January 2026: Turbott Square (25 ha), from the report

The final report for the Conservation Services Programme project, POP2025-04 Auckland Islands seabird research: Gibson’s albatross, by Johannes Chambon (Department of Conservation, Dunedin, New Zealand) and colleagues, is now available.  It shows the population of the subspecies gibsoni of the Endangered Antipodean Albatross has halved on Adams Island, Auckland Islands since 2005.

A Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross breeding pair among the megaherb Campbell Island Daisy Pleurophyllum speciosum on Adams Island, photograph by Colin O'Donnell

The report’s summary follows:

“Gibson’s albatross (Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni) has been in decline since 2005. Research into the causes of and solutions to the falling numbers of Gibson’s wandering albatross includes an annual visit to the main breeding grounds on Adams Island, and this report describes the results of the field programme in the 2025/2026 breeding season. Breeding success in 2025 was 60%, with 83 chicks produced in the study area, all of which were banded before fledging. Mean adult female survival in 2014-2024 at 93% remains slightly lower than the mean 95% before the 2005 population crash. To increase the proportion of the total breeding population ground-counted annually, a new census block was demarcated and counted in 2026: Turbott Square, within the high-density Fly Basin colony.  This brings the proportion of the total Adams Island breeding population ground-counted annually to 12.4% rather than 10% counted formerly. A total of 5,032 pairs were estimated to be breeding on Adams Island in 2026, comparable to 2025 (4,865 pairs). The total number of Gibson’s albatross breeding pairs remains half the size of the pre-crash nesting population.”

Reference:

Chambon, J., Elliott, G., Walker, K. & Watts, J. 2026.  Gibson’s wandering albatross demography and population estimate 2026.  Wellington: Conservation Services Programme, Department of Conservation.  16 pp.