Post No. 4 for ‘WADWEEK2021’

The Royal Albatross Centre will be celebrating on the 19th; see below

Saturday 19 June will be the second-ever World Albatross Day.  Last year the day was inaugurated by ACAP following a decision made at its Advisory Committee meeting held in Brazil in 2019.  ACAP Latest News carried posts referring to the day from a few days previously, thus introducing the concept of a week-long marking of the plight being faced by albatrosses (and petrels) at sea and on land - hence a ‘WADWEEK’.  Pleasing then to see environmental NGOs and institutions picking up on the idea and posting on their websites and social pages of their own support for a Word Albatross Day during ‘WADWEEK2021’ in various ways.  Some examples spotted out there follow.

BirdLife International

The world’s largest NGO working to conserve birds is running an Albatross World Cup that commenced on the 8th.  Champions for each species are speaking up on Twitter. We eagerly await hearing which of the 22 species will be crowned the winner after 15 qualifying rounds.  Voting started today for the quarter finals: first up Grey-headed vs Wandering.  Tough choice!

The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators

IAATO has produced a poster to mark World Albatross Day 2021, freely downloadable from its website.

Albatross Birding and Nature Tours

The Chilean eco-tour company Albatross Birding and Nature Tours is holding an international photographic and writing competition “Albatrosses, their World and the Threats they Face”. Hurry to make your submission, the competition closes tomorrow with winners due to be announced the day after Saturday’s World Albatross Day

Royal Albatross Centre

The Royal Albatross Centre in New Zealand (the only mainland breeding site for albatrosses anywhere) will be celebrating World Albatross Day in the Dunedin Octagon from 10h00-14h00 on Saturday 19 June with an “amazing albatross expert team”.  Hope it goes well.

Australian Antarctic Division

A 2020 entry: Laysan Albatross Chick Poop Cake by Antje Steinfurth. Will this year's AAD Albicakes be up to scratch?

Last year ACAP organized a “Great Albicake Bake Off” to mark World Albatross Day 2020 that proved a popular competition, with some truly amazing entries. This year it was not repeated due to the capacity constraints of a small Secretariat.  However, the Australian Antarctic Division arranged its own Albicake Bake Off on 10 June in the AAD Theatrette.  All staff were encouraged to bring an albatross-themed cake.  The Albicakes were then judged by “albatross celebrity guest judges” and a prize awarded to the winner.  ACAP Latest News is anxiously awaiting the outcome and hopes to post pictures of some of the cakes, and, of course, of the winning entry.

ACAP itself has not been idle.  Go to ‘World Albatross Day’ from its home page to discover posters, infographics, logos and a music video to download in four languages to use in your own celebrations and for educational purposes thereafter.  ACAP Latest News is posting daily during ‘WADWEEK2021’, this being #4.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 June 2021

Post No. 3 for ‘WADWEEK2021’

The Seabird Wanderers of ACAP: Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  A music video by Kitty Harvill and John Nicolosi

Kitty Harvill, a wildlife conservation artist based in both Brazil and the USA, has produced a new music video for ACAP pro bono in celebration of this year’s World Albatross Day on 19 June.  The video, entitled ‘The Seabird Wanderers of ACAP’ includes photographs of all the 31 ACAP-listed species of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters, with music by John Nicolosi of Niko Records Studio in the USA.  Kitty is co-founder of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) whose two projects for ACAP, last year on albatrosses, this year on petrels, have led to several hundred attractive artworks being made available for ACAP to use in support of its efforts to raise awareness of the serious plight that many albatross populations continue to face.

Kitty Harvill, with the book she illustrated about Wisdom, the world’s oldest known albatross

Kitty writes “as a conservation artist, I feel it relates to all areas of my life – being mindful of every choice we make and how it affects our planet and those with whom we share it.  We have it all in our hands to make changes, but the biggest changes seem to be in the minds and hearts of our fellow human beings.”

ACAP intends to show the new video during breaks at its annual meetings, as well as in other situations.  It is available for downloading and use in the cause of albatross and petrel conservation by institutions, environmental NGOs and members of the concerned public.  Please acknowledge both ABUN and ACAP in its use.

Kitty Harvill and John Nicolosi have previously collaborated on two music videos featuring paintings by members of ABUN, produced last year on albatrosses and this year on petrels.

With grateful thanks to Kitty Harvill and John Nicolosi, as well as to all the photographers named in the video for allowing the use of their work.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 June 2021, updated 16 June 2021

Post No. 2 for ‘WADWEEK2021’  

Earlier in the year ACAP Latest News posted two infographics depicting the conservation threats faced by the Critically Endangered Tristan Diomedea dabbenena and Waved Phoebastria irrorata Albatrosses in support of this year’s World Albatross Day on 19 June and its chosen theme “Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries”.  The infographics are available as downloadable posters in the three ACAP official languages of English, French and Spanish.  A Portuguese version of the Tristan Albatross infographic is also available because the species regularly visits the waters of Brazil (click here).

A third infographic, that for the globally Vulnerable Wandering Albatross D. exulans, is being launched today to mark the second day of ‘WADWEEK2021’ that ends with the second World Albatross Day on Saturday 19 June.  This time the new infographic has been part sponsored by Environmental NGO, BirdLife South Africa, to help draw attention to the plight of Wanderers on sub-Antarctic Marion Island where introduced House Mice have taken to attacking and killing their chicks.  As a consequence, the NGO is working with the South African Department of Forestry. Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to eradicate the mice in 2023, in a partnership known as the Mouse-Free Marion Project.  The infographic also draws attention to the Wandering Albatross chicks that are being killed by feral cats on the French island of Kerguelen (click here).

All three infographics have been designed to help inform the general public, including school learners.  They serve to complement the more detailed and referenced ACAP Species Assessments and the more concise and illustrated ACAP Species Summaries. The English and Prtuguese infographics are available to download here, whilst French and Spanish versions can be found in their respective language menus on the website under, Infographies sur les espèces and Infographía sobres las especies. The infographics may be freely downloaded at a high resolution to allow for their printing and display as  posters. 

In what is hoped to be a series that eventually includes all 22 species of albatrosses recognized by ACAP, the next infographic to be produced later this year will be of the New Zealand endemic (and globally Endangered) Antipodean Albatross D. antipodensis.  This infographic will be sponsored by that country’s Department of Conservation.

With thanks to Mark Anderson, Alistair McInnes and Anton Wolfaardt of BirdLife South Africa for part sponsorship and comments, illustrator Namasri  Niumim who has produced all three infographics with patience and good humour and Michelle Risi for the original concept design.  The Wandering Albatross infographic was additionally improved by comments received on drafts from Christophe Barbraud, Richard Phillips and Stephanie Prince.  Thanks to all.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 June 2021

Post No. 1 for ‘WADWEEK2021’

Shy Albatross Thalassarche cauta off Portland, Victoria, Australia, artwork by Brett Jarrett; oil on stretched canvas, 76 x 101 cm

Brett Jarrett is a wildlife artist and illustrator based in Narrawong, a small town close to Portland in Victoria, Australia, where he paints in oils on canvas and exhibits in his own gallery ‘Bay of Whales’.  ACAP Latest News has previously featured Brett and his seabird art, notably of the albatrosses and petrels he has observed on visits to the Antarctic Continent, drawing attention to his many illustrations in A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife by Hadoram Shirihai (click here).

Brett has now kindly allowed an image of his recent painting of a Shy Albatross Thalassarche cauta, completed on the last day of May, to be used to commence ‘WADWEEK2021’, a series of seven special posts culminating in World Albatross Day, on Saturday 19 June.  Brett writes: “the bird was photographed at sea off Portland during an organized 'birding' pelagic trip.  Shy Albatross breed in Bass Strait and it can be seen year-round off Portland".  He continues "There is something incredibly exciting about creating a piece of fine art that moves people.  As with all my artwork, it is born from the initial love of a subject that ultimately leads to a field trip, whether that be a day excursion or a full-blown month-long expedition.”  The Shy Albatross, an Australian breeding endemic,  is readily seen from the clifftops around his coast, as Brett says on his Facebook page.

Brett Jarrett works on an albatross painting in his gallery

This year’s theme for World Albatross Day is “Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries”.  Thousands of albatrosses, including the Australian endemic and globally Near Threatened Shy Albatross, continue to die as a result of fishing operations, getting caught on hooks, becoming entangled in nets and colliding with trawl cables, all leading to their death by drowning or injury.  However, solutions are available to address this conservation crisis.  This year’s World Albatross Day, only the second ever, aims to draw attention to the problem and to highlight best-practice solutions, such as the use of bird-scaring lines in both longline and trawl fisheries, line weighting and night setting or use of hook-shielding devices by longliners and management of offal discharge by trawlers.

Brett Jarrrett’s artwork of these threatened birds can only bring awareness to their plight.

Read ACAP’s two-page illustrated Species Summary for the Shy Albatross from here.  It is also available in French and Spanish.

With thanks to Brett Jarrett.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 June 2021