---
title: "Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge set to track ACAP-listed Black-footed Albatrosses and Pink-footed Shearwaters at sea"
---

# Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge set to track ACAP-listed Black-footed Albatrosses and Pink-footed Shearwaters at sea

* *![Oikonos Black footed Albatross satellite tag](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/B/Black_footed/Oikonos_Black-footed_Albatross_satellite_tag.jpeg)**

 *The aerial is visible on this Black-footed Albatross tagged on Laysan Island.  The satellite transmitter is taped to back feathers and is expected to fall off in*c.*three months*

 The USA-based environmental NGO, [Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge](https://www.oikonos.org/)has been busy fitting tracking devices to two ACAP-listed species in two hemispheres,  They are the [Near Threatened](https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/black-footed-albatross-phoebastria-nigripes) Black-footed Albatross *Phoebastria nigripes*in the USA’s North-Western Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) and on in the north and the [Vulnerable](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/22698195) Pink-footed Shearwater *Ardenna creatopus* on Chile’s Juan Fernández Archipelago in the south.

 Information from the Februaty 2024 Newsletter (subscribe [here](https://www.oikonos.org/newsletter)).

 **Black-footed Albatross - Laysan Island**

 Jessie Beck and Ilana Nimz  of Oikonos, along with members of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service  visited [Laysan Island](https://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/visit/laysan.html) in the [Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument](https://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/) last month for a single day and deployed 10 satellite transmitters and 20 archival Global Location Sensing (GLS) tags on adult Black-footed Albatrosses.  The study builds on “two decades of work to better understand albatross mortality in fisheries (termed bycatch) throughout the North Pacific.”  A separate team is on [Kure Atoll](https://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/visit/kure.html), the most western island within the monument, deploying more tags on Black-footed Albatrosses.

 *![pmnm expansion map](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Logos/pmnm_expansion_map.jpg)North-Western Hawaiian Islands within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (solid line)*

 **Pink-footed Shearwater -****Santa Clara and Robinson Crusoe Islands**

 Recently, an Oikonos team visited Santa Clara and Robinson Crusoe Islands in the [Juan Fernández Archipelago](https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Juan_Fern%C3%A1ndez_Islands)  to study Pink-footed Shearwaters. The team equipped 39 shearwaters with GLS tags and six with satellite transmitters.  This study is funded by Environment Canada and is a collaboration with the Department of Oceanography, Universidad de Concepción.  Studying aspects of the biology and conservation of the Pink-footed Shearwaters (including by [tracking on migration](https://www.acap.aq/search?q=Pink-footed%20tracking&w1=before&w2=before)) is a [long-standing project](https://www.oikonos.org/species/pink-footed-shearwater) of Oikonos.  News from the [Oikonos Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/Oikonos).

 *![Oikonos Pink footed Sheawater satellite transmitter](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Pink_footed/Oikonos_Pink-footed_Sheawater_satellite_transmitter.jpg)  
 A Pink-footed Shearwater shows the aerial of its back-mounted satellite tracker, all photographs from Oikonos*

 *John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 07 March 2024*