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.

A Laysan Albatross chick among dense Verbesina on Midway Atoll, photograph by US Fish & Wildlife Service, 2023

In May 2000 I spent a week with other attendees on the USA’s Midway Atoll after the Second Albatross and Petrel Conference, held in Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.  An abiding memory is of the huge numbers of Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis, seemingly everywhere over the atoll, including a courting pair (presumably pre-breeders) right below my ground-floor bedroom window (left open for the heat), that shouted at each other all night long.  Another memory was of the late-season thickets of the invasive Golden Crownbeard Verbesina encelioides, among which the Black-footed P. nigripes and Laysan Albatrosses bred on both the atoll’s Eastern and Sand Islands.  Native to the American mainland it is an alien on the Northwestern Hawaiian islands where it occurs, including Midway (where thought introduced in the 1930s) and Kure Atolls (click here).  Adult albatrosses can get their wings caught in its branches and the dense vegetation blocks cooling sea breezes, creating oven-like conditions for their chicks, putting them at risk of death from dehydration.  Eradication efforts began in the late 1990s (click here), but in 2000 when I visited there were still extensive stands of the plant on Sand Island.

Since my visit, use of hand-sprayed herbicides in the mid-2010s and the removal of plants has greatly changed the appearance of the albatross breeding flats, as these two photographs taken on Midway’s Eastern Island 12 years apart testify.

Dense stands of Verbesina stretch to the horizon on Midway’s Eastern Island in 2011, photograph by Pete Leary/USFWS

Photograph taken from the same spot with no Verbesina in sight in 2023, by Jon Brack

However, despite earlier claims of eradication being imminent, the abiding seedbank on both Midway islands has required the ongoing removal of emerging seedlings and hidden plants, as reported last September by the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Reserve (FOMA).

“For over 20 years, with several million dollars invested by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), with FOMA's additional support, the effort to eradicate invasive Verbesina encelioides and other incipient weeds from Midway Atoll has steadily advanced—and today, we’re closer than ever.  This highly invasive, non-native plant once threatened vital seabird nesting habitat. But thanks to dedicated staff and volunteers, the number of plants found each year continues to decline.  A key breakthrough?  Targeting the persistent seedbank hidden in Midway’s sandy soils—an approach that’s proving eradication is possible.”

Watch a short video of FOMA volunteers pulling out small Verbesina plants among Laysan Albatrosses on Midway’s Sand Island, and another video hunting for and removing seedlings from among natural vegetation.

Eradicating alien plants on islands that support breeding populations of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels fits well within this year’s theme of “Habitat Restoration” for World Albatross Day on 19 June.  ACAP Latest News will be pleased to hear of other attempts to eradicate invasive plants at localities where ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels breed.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 11 June 2026