“Jiff” the Wandering Albatross modelu, held (from left) by Sarah-Lena Reinhold, Gemma Rushton and Karina Sorrel, photograph from Karina Sorrel

To celebrate World Albatross Day on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island this year on 19 June, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service rangers Karina Sorrel and Gemma Rushton, together with Australian Antarctic Division wildlife biologist Sarah-Lena Reinhold, created a life-sized Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans (Vulnerable).

The Wandering Albatross model presides above the table set for midwinter, photograph by Ben Callahan

“This became the centrepiece for an immersive experience in which expeditioners had to find their mate and perform a courtship dance – a very humorous sight.  The albatross, later christened “Jiff” by popular vote, was hung in the station mess, where it doubled as the centrepiece decoration for the Midwinter dinner.  Jiff was then ceremoniously burnt following the midwinter festivities, bringing the celebrations to a close.”

Jiff gets burnt on the “barbie”, photograph by Ben Callahan

“Macquarie Island provides critical breeding habitat for Australia’s extremely small Wandering Albatross population.  This year, there are four Wandering Albatross chicks on the island.  The nests are all located in very remote and spectacular locations in the rugged south‑west corner of the island.  The chicks hatched at the start of the year and will live at their nest alone, including through the sub‑Antarctic winter, until it is time to fledge at the end of the year.  Remote cameras are located at each nest to non-invasively monitor the breeding ecology of the birds.”

All alone: one for the four Wandering Albatross chicks on Macquarie Island this year, photograph by Gemma Rushton

“The successful eradication of rabbits, rats and mice from Macquarie Island (the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project, declared a success in 2014) has helped restore the quality of albatross breeding habitat, most evident through the recovery of tussock vegetation.  The removal of these invasive pests means there is no risk of them having an ongoing impact on breeding birds and chicks.

In addition to Wandering Albatross, Macquarie Island Nature Reserve and World Heritage Area is home to three other albatross species (Light-mantled, Black-browed, and Grey-headed Albatross) and many petrel species.  The conservation of these species is of Tasmanian, Australian, and international significance.”

Information taken from This week at Macquarie Island: 26 June 2026.

With thanks to Mandi Livesey, Australian Antarctic Division.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 08 July 2026

New Zealander Keith Springer on a sub-Antarctic island

Keith Springer, Operations Manager for the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project, gave a talk entitled “Habitat Restoration on Islands in the Southern Ocean” in a webinar organized by BirdLife Australia to mark World Albatross Day with its theme of “Habitat Restoration” on 19 June 2026.

With a career that had its early days with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, Antarctica New Zealand and the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, Keith has considerable experience in island eradication operations.  He led the successful (and award-winning) operation to eradicate European Rabbits, Black Rats and House Mice from Australia’s Macquarie Island, was part of the South Georgia Heritage Trust’s Habitat Restoration Project team that successfully eradicated Brown Rats and House Mice from South Georgia and has served as an advisor on many other rodent-eradication projects.  These have included being Operational Advisor and Safety Officer to the successful “Million Dollar Mouse” eradication on Antipodes Island and Operations Planner for the Gough Island Restoration Programme that aimed to eradicate that island’s mice (but unfortunately was not successful).

His presentation is now available for free viewing via YouTube.

“Join BirdLife Australia for World Albatross Day and explore how habitat restoration is helping threatened seabird populations recover. This webinar will highlight practical conservation action on breeding islands, from managing invasive vertebrate pests in the Southern Ocean to planning restoration at Gabo Island, Victoria.  Featuring Mr Keith Springer and Dr Yuna Kim, the session 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’s presentation was followed by one by Yuna Kim, Birdlife Australia’s Seabird Project Coordinator on plans to restore Gabo Island, a 154-ha island off the coast of eastern Victoria, Australia.

Yuna Kim on Cabbage Tree Island, New South Wales, Australia, where she studied the Vulnerable White-winged or Gould’s Petrel Pterodroma leucoptera for her PhD, awarded in 2015

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 08 July 2026

 

Releasing a rehabilitated Newell’s Shearwater in 2018, photograph by Andre Raine

Craig Harrison (Santa Rosa, California, USA) has published in the open-access journal Marine Ornithology on work conducted by the Pacific Seabird Group over four decades to improve the conservation status of seabirds, including Critically Endangered Newell's Shearwater Puffinus newelli, and by eradicating introduced mammalian predators on seabird islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The Pacific Seabird Group (PSG), founded in 1972, is “dedicated to the study and conservation of Pacific seabirds and their environment.” During its first 40 years, PSG undertook scores of conservation actions, although as an all-volunteer organization, PSG lacked the capacity to implement many programs or projects. It achieved its conservation goals through leadership, raising issues, bringing the best science to decision makers, and serving as a catalyst for others to act. PSG has been especially influential in six areas: (1) eradicating invasive alien animals from seabird colonies; (2) conserving Marbled Murrelets Brachyramphus marmoratus; (3) protecting seabird colonies in western Mexico; (4) promoting the wise use of oil spill recovery funds; (5) conserving Newell's Shearwaters Puffinus newelli; and (6) protecting many terrestrial and marine environments important to seabirds.”

Reference:

Harrison, C.S. 2026.  Conserving seabirds: actions of the Pacific Seabird Group during its first 40 years.  Marine Ornithology 54: 189-214.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 07 July 2026

MFM Project ambassador Chris Jones powers through a 5-km parkrun in the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden, photograph from the Betty’s Bay Parkrun Facebook page

The Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project marked World Albatross Day (WAD2026) and its theme of “Habitat Restoration” in South Africa on 19 June with a suite of activities in Betty’s Bay.  Three members of the Mouse-Free Marion Runners group drove the 100 km from Cape Town to the coastal village along False Bay’s spectacular Clarence Drive to meet up with long-time MFM Project ambassadors and local residents Chris Jones and Michelle Risi on the afternoon of World Albatross Day.  Chris and Michelle have recently registered at the University of Cape Town for PhDs, with Chris studying climate-change impacts on albatrosses breeding on Marion Island and Michelle studying the demography of giant petrels Macronectes spp. on several sub-Antarctic islands, including Marion where they are threatened by introduced House Mice.  Back in 2019, Michelle first proposed to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) that it hold a World Albatross Day, now in its seventh year.

Defying the wind.  From left: Chris Jones, Michelle Risi and John Cooper, MFM News Correspondent, at the Stony Point penguin colony – in our MFM activity shirts

The whole African Continent (and its coastal islands) supports no breeding albatrosses, so the first stop to mark “WAD2026” was a visit to the Stony Point Nature Reserve where Critically Endangered African Penguins Spheniscus demersus breed on the mainland.  Honorary albatrosses, if you will!  The friendly Cape Nature ranger on site took the required photo with a MFM Project pop-up banner on display.  Following this outing we got out of the wind to sample what is becoming a global phenomenon marking World Albatross Day – an “albicake”!

Michelle Risi decorated her home-baked “albicake” from her own photo of an Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos on Gough Island, photograph by John Cooper

We were joined for tea ‘n cake by MFM Runners (and MFM fund raisers), Jeremy George and Erica Leppan.  A most pleasant way to celebrate the seventh World Albatross Day, first held in 2020.

Michelle, along with husband Chris, cuts her cake for afternoon tea; there were also “albicupcakes”, photograph by John Cooper

Befitting a running group, the next morning we participated in the 348th holding of Betty’s Bay Parkrun.  Held in the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden, the 5-km fun run must be one of the most spectacular in the country with its up and down sections among indigenous vegetation, including flowering proteas.

“All shout Albatross!” Moments before the parkrun got underway, photograph by Jeremy George

With MFM Project’s pop-up banners on display and after a few introductory words to the 223 assembled runners about the MFM Project (and the obligatory shout of “Albatross!”) the parkrun got underway.

Erica Leppan and John Cooper attempt to fly like an albatross in their MFM active shirts on one of the parkrun’s gradual climbs, photograph by Andrea Angel

Some of the MFM Runners celebrate after the parkrun.  From left: Michelle Risi, John Cooper, Emeritus Professor Peter Ryan (who chairs the 50-member MFM Scientific and Technical Advisory Group (behind), Andrea Angel, Manager of BirdLife South Africa’s Albatross Task Force and Chris Jones, photograph by Jeremy George

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 06 July 2026