Breeding Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses on Kure Atoll, photograph by Cynthia Vanderlip

Breeding Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses  have once more been counted on two of  the USA’s Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NHWI) in the North Pacific.  They are Green Island, Kure Atoll State Wildlife Sanctuary and Sand, Eastern and Spit Islands, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.  Both fall within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a large Marine Protected Area declared in 2006.

Taking a meal together: the 2024 count team on Kure Atoll

Kure Atoll State Wildlife Sanctuary

The Kure Atoll Conservancy team has completed the annual albatross nest count on Green Island (the main island of the atoll) this month.  Caitlin Dudzik shares her experience summarized from her blog:

“We found them nesting on the beaches, on sand dunes, under naupaka shrubs Scaevola taccada, under heliotrope trees Heliotropium foertherianum, out in the open fields, right on top of Bonin Petrel Pterodroma hypoleuca and Tristram’s Storm Petrel Hydrobates tristram burrows, and under Red-footed Booby Sula sula and Black Noddy Anous stolidus perches.  We conducted counts in the blazing sun, in downpours, on windy days, on perfect weather days.  As soon as the sun came up and we could see, we headed out.”  The final counts totals were 33 126 Laysan Albatross nests, 3360 Black-footed Albatross nests, and no nests occupied by Short-tailed Albatrosses P. albatrus

Watch a video by Sarah Donahue of one of the first Black-footed Albatross chicks to hatch on Kure Atoll this season.

Midway’s albatross nest counters gather for a photograph, by Dan Rapp

Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

On Midway Atoll every year albatross nest counters “spend a few frenzied weeks trekking from one side of the atoll to the other.  These intrepid citizen scientists spend eight hours a day, six days a week hand-counting every albatross nest on Midway Atoll’s two islands”, as reported by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) volunteer Kyle Richardson (click here).

Line abreast: “citizen scientists” count Laysan Albatross nests on Sand Island, Midway Atoll, photograph by Dan Rapp

Annual counts commenced on Midway in 1991.  The 2024 breeding season yielded 29 562 Black-footed Albatross and 498 448 Laysan Albatross nests, along with a solitary Short-tailed Albatross nest on Midway’s Sand, Eastern and Spit Islands.

Nest counters traverse Eastern Island, photograph by Dan Rapp

In recent years, albatross nesting sites on Laysan Island and French Frigate Shoals within the Pahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument have become increasingly difficult to access, making the Midway counts all the more valuable.  Watch a video of the counting team in action here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 26 January 2024

A Buller's Albatross effortlessly soars over the ocean close to the Chatham Islands in New Zealand; photograph by Enzo M. R. Reyes

The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) is excited to announce, “Marine Protected Areas – Safeguarding our Oceans”, as the theme for this year’s World Albatross Day (WAD2024), to be celebrated on 19 June 2024. 

Albatrosses are the ultimate ocean wanderers, spending most of their lives at sea traversing vast distances across the globe in search of food such as fish, squid and krill. This year, World Albatross Day will focus on the connection between albatrosses and the ocean, and highlight how Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can help improve the conservation status of these magnificent birds. 

MPAs provide levels of protection for the species and ecosystems located within their defined geographical boundaries through the legal framework that determines the type of economic activity (if any) that can occur within them. They can be designated by governments within their own territorial waters, and now, with the landmark signature of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction or 'BBNJ treaty', by 84 nations, the creation of MPAs in waters commonly known as the High Seas will become possible. 

The establishment of MPAs can assist in improving the conservation status of albatrosses through the protection of the immediate surrounds of their breeding localities and key regions across their migratory ranges, and through the management of activities permitted within them, such as fishing. 

New Zealand’s Near Threatened Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri and the Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus have been chosen as the featured species for 2024’s World Albatross Day celebrations. 

In 2024, ACAP will mark 20 years since coming into force. Over these two decades, the Agreement’s 13 Parties have continually strived to improve the conservation status of its listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters. 

To acknowledge the Agreement’s 20^th year, a commemorative World Albatross Day logo has been designed by South African Graphic Designer, Geoffry Tyler. Geoffry has worked with ACAP previously and is behind the design of the original World Albatross Day logo which has been in use since the inaugural celebration in 2020 under the theme, “Eradicating Island Pests”. 

An official World Albatross Day poster in ACAP’s three official languages of English, French and Spanish will be released in the lead up to the event and will be made available at high resolution to download at the ACAP website.  New infographics in the ACAP Species series for the two featured albatrosses will also be available.

Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) is once again supporting World Albatross Day with artworks produced by their nature and wildlife artists. Project #47 will commence on 27 January and run for two months until the end of March. 

The ocean, which covers more than 70% Earth’s surface, is facing increased pressures from climate change and human activity including, overfishing, deep sea mining, and pollution. The celebration of World Albatross Day on 19 June will be a chance to raise awareness of these incredible birds and put a spotlight on MPAs as one of the tools that can help us to safeguard albatrosses and the wider marine environment, ensuring the rich and biologically diverse array of life sustained by the ocean thrives for generations to come. 

25 January 2024

Black-footed Albatrosses nesting on the shores of Midway Atoll, a low-lying Hawaiian island vulnerable to climate change and the catalyst behind the translocation project which is aiming to establish a new colony on Mexico's remote Guadalupe Island. Photograph courtesy of Pacific Rim Conservation

The establishment of a new colony of globally Near Threatened Black-footed Albatrosses Phoebastria nigripes on Mexico’s Guadalupe Island has been given a boost with the arrival of 36 fertilised eggs from Hawaii’s Midway Atoll. 

The dramatic move is part of an ongoing conservation effort to ensure the long-term survival of Black-footed Albatrosses whose population is at risk to climate change due to 97% of their breeding grounds being low-lying atolls in the USA’s North-western Hawaiian Islands. 

The project is managed by an international group of organisations including Pacific Rim Conservation (PRC), Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI), and Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, with coordinated support from the federal governments of both countries. 

The project’s translocation team has been in action since early January when they first collected viable eggs from nesting pairs on Midway. The viable eggs were then transported to Guadalupe Island and placed with nesting pairs of Laysan Albatrosses P. immutabilis whose egg had died. Once hatched, the Laysan pairs will raise the chicks as their own until they fledge.

Ninety-three Black-footed Albatrosses have so far successfully fledged from Guadalupe Island as part of the programme, with the first translocated albatrosses expected to return to the island by 2026 according to Pacific Rim Conservation.

ACAP Latest News has been reporting on the project since the first translocations took place in 2020, and an in-depth article about the project is also available at the Audubon website, here.  

24 January 2024

The latest ACAP Species Infographic released in English last month and the fourteenth in the series, is for the Near Threatened Grey Petrel Procellaria cinerea.  It is the first to be produced for an ACAP-listed petrel, the previous 13 infographics all being for albatrosses.  It is now available from today in all three official ACAP languages of English, French and Spanish.  The Grey Petrel infographic has been sponsored by the Australian Antarctic Program.

The ACAP Species Infographic series has been designed to help inform the public, including school learners, of the threats faced by albatrosses and petrels and what is being and can be done to combat them.  They serve to complement the more detailed and referenced ACAP Species Assessments, the concise and illustrated ACAP Species Summaries and the ACAP Photo Essay series.  English and Portuguese* language versions of all the infographics produced to date are available to download here.  French and Spanish versions can be found in their respective language menus for the website under Infographies sur les espèces and Infografía sobre las especies.

All the 14 infographics produced to date may be freely downloaded at a high resolution to allow for printing professionally in two poster sizes (approximately A2 and A3).  Please note they are only being made available for personal use or when engaging in activities that will aid in drawing attention to the conservation crisis faced by the world’s albatrosses and petrels – when ACAP will be pleased to receive a mention.  They should not be used for personal gain.

One more ACAP Species Infographic is currently in production, for the Vulnerable White-chinned Petrel P. aequinoctialis, which will also be produced in Portuguese.  A further five species have been sponsored, with work on them to commence this year.

The ACAP Species Infographics have all been created by Thai illustrator Namasri ‘Namo’ Niumim from Bangkok.  Namo is a graduate of the School of Architecture and Design, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design.

With thanks to ‘Pep’ Arcos, Jonathon Barrington, Karine Delord, Johannes Fischer, Graham Parker, Richard Phillips and Peter Ryan for their help.

*Being produced for the six ACAP-listed species that regularly visit waters off Brazil.  To date, those produced are for the Tristan Albatross D. dabbenena and the Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 23 January 2024