Sooty Albatross by Lenina Villela, Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day 2020

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement celebrated the first World Albatross Day on 19 June 2020, with the theme “Eradicating Island Pests”.  Seven years on, the theme for 2026 is “Habitat Restoration”.  ACAP Latest News has trawled through its correspondents around the world to find out what might be happening to mark World Albatross Day this year in countries which support breeding populations of albatrosses.  Here are some of the events and activities to look out for in three days’ time.

AUSTRALIA

Black-browed Albatross by Lenina Villela, Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day 2020

Keith Springer, Operations Manager, Mouse-Free Marion Project, will be speaking in a World Albatross Day webinar on Friday 19 June, organized by BirdLife Australia with the title “Managing vertebrate pests on seabird breeding colonies in the Southern Ocean”.  The webinar addresses WAD2026's theme of Habitat Restoration.  Yuna Kim (BirdLife Australia's Seabird Project Coordinator) will also be talking, with the title “Gabo Island seabird habitat restoration plan”  Read more and register here.  Thanks to Yuna Kim, Seabird Project Coordinator, BirdLife Australia (who will also be speaking in the webinar).

Down in Kingston, Tasmania, staff at the Australian Antarctic Division will be holding their usual get together for morning tea, this time on Monday 22 June with a group photograph holding their World Albatross Day Banner – no doubt also tucking into cake.  Mandi Livesey, Policy and Strategy Branch, writes that with this year’s theme being Habitat Restoration “we will celebrate the success of the Australian and Tasmanian Government Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project”.  Mandi promises to send photos for a post WAD2026 write up.

JAPAN

Short-tailed Albatross by Lenina Villela, Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day 2020

According to Yasuko Suzuki, BirdLife International in Japan, the country will repeat its annual Seabird Week over 19-25 June celebrating World Albatross Day with photo and poster displays and lectures in the Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park.  On the morning of 21 June five talks will be given in the park, including on the recovery of the Vulnerable Okinotayuu or Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus population on Torishima to 10 000 birds by doyen Hiroshi Hasegawa and Yamashina Institute for Ornithology researcher Naoki Tomita.  There will also be an excursion to view breeding terns, as in previous years.  Read more here.

NEW ZEALAND

Northern Royal Albatross by Lenina Villela, Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day 2020

As expected, World Albatross Day events in New Zealand will be centred around the mainland colony of Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head near Dunedin.  The Department of Conservation will be announcing the results of its Royal Cam Name the Chick competition on the 19th (with prizes on offer).  Royal Albatross Centre | Wild Life Tours in Dunedin, NZ will be once more be offering free tours and its Toroa Café creating another life-size albatross cake in celebration for World Albatross Day.  Information from Department of Conservation Biodiversity Ranger, Sharyn Broni.

SOUTH AFRICA

Wandering Albatross by Lenina Villela, Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day 2020

The Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project, that aims to rid South Africa’s sub-Antarctic island of its albatross-killing mice, has been marking this year’s world Albatross Day with a series of posts to social media on the island’s four breeding albatrosses, building up to 19 June.  On Friday and Saturday members of the Mouse-Free Marion Runners Group will be in the coastal village of Betty’s Bay to be photographed with banners in support of WAD2026 next to the Critically Endangered African Penguins Spheniscus demersus that breed on the mainland in the Stony Point Nature Reserve (note that no albatrosses breed on the African mainland or coastal islands).  The next morning the group will join the 5-km Park Run in the local flower reserve.  Expect more photos!

World Albatross Day will also be featured at the South African National Antarctic Programme’s midwinter celebrations organized by Antarctic Legacy of South Africa at Stellenbosch University on the 20th, so a busy weekend.

UNITED KINGDOM

Grey-headed Albatross by Lenina Villela, Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day 2020

Antje Steinfurth, Conservation Scientist at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, reports that Adam Charlton of the RSPB’s Marine Team has written an article “Saving albatrosses on the high seas” to mark WAD2026 in Notes on Nature on the NGO’s website.  Adam’s text concentrates on the threats that albatrosses are facing at sea and what is being done to ameliorate them.

No news about planned WAD2026 activities is in as yet from the New World.  However, events taking place in the Americas will be covered by ACAP as information come to hand.  It is pleasing to see how the seventh World Albatross Day is being marked around the world – in support of the seabirds it celebrates.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 16 June 2026, updated 17 June 2026

 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