Photograph by Tom McDonnell, from the LIFE Raft Facebook page

In 2021, the LIFE Raft (Rathlin Acting for Tomorrow) project began with the aim to remove feral Ferrets Mustela furo and Brown or Norway Rats Rattus norvegicus to help secure the future of Northern Ireland’s largest seabird colony on inhabited 1371-ha Rathlin Island, off the north coast of County Antrim. Ferrets were released on the island in the 1980s and rats have been present since the 19th century.

“Rathlin is home to over 250 000 seabirds, including internationally important populations of Puffins, Razorbills, Guillemots.  Researchers on Rathlin found one ferret was responsible for killing 27 adult birds in just two days” (click here).

“In 2025 following the successful eradication of the ferrets [formally announced in March 2026], which were preying on eggs, chicks, and adult seabirds, Manx Shearwaters were recorded breeding on the island for the first time in over two decades.  “Using night-vision technology, the LIFE Raft team captured footage of young birds ready to fledge from their burrows, providing the confirmation of Manx Shearwaters successfully nesting and raising chicks on the island.”

From the LIFE Raft Facebook page

Tthe ferrets were removed by the deployment of 600 kill and live traps. To eliminate the rats over 6500 rodenticide bait stations made of corrugated plastic piping were then placed every 50 m over the whole island, supported by volunteer teams, rope work on cliffs, field cameras, thermal drones, 28 000 wax chew blocks to detect presence and Woody, the rat detection dog.  “No ferrets have been seen on the island since Autumn of 2023 and only two rats have been seen in 2025.  The project is currently following international eradication best practice and will continue our rat eradication efforts this Winter, starting November 2025” (click here).

According to ‘Biz’ Bell of Wildlife Management International, Rathlin is the first island from which ferrets have been eliminated.

Manx Shearwater fledglings leave their Rathlin burrows at night, from the LIFE Raft Facebook page

Watch a video about the natural history of Rathlin Island, read a press release about the end of the ferrets and see an earlier ACAP Latest News article on the island’s shearwaters.

News of the project’s success comes in a year when ACAP has chosen “Habitat Restoration” as its theme for World Albatross Day on 19 June 2026.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 31 March 2026

 The Governments of New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Cook Islands, Dominican Republic and Fiji jointly submitted a proposal (UNEP/CMS/COP15/Doc.30.2.5/Rev.1), to list 26 species, subspecies and geographic populations of gadfly petrels in the genera Pterodroma and Pseudobulweria on either Appendix I or II to the Fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) that met last week in Campo Grande, Brazil.

The proposed petrels include single-island endemics and poorly known taxa.  They are mainly of low-latitude and tropical islands in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.  Four gadfly petrels are already listed on CMS Appendix I.  They are the Bermuda P. cahow, Galapagos P. phaeopygia, Hawaiian P. sandwichensis and Henderson P. atrata Petrels.

New Zealand introduced the proposal to list the gadfly petrels, noting they are “some of the rarest, most endangered, and poorly understood seabirds in the world.”  Many Parties attending COP15 expressed strong support in the Committee of the Whole (CoW).  The proposal was then submitted for adoption by the Conference of Parties, which formally adopted all the proposed taxa onto its Appendices on 30 March, the closing day of COP15.

The gadfly petrel proposal is available in English, French and Spanish (click here).

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement held a workshop in Wellington, New Zealand in 2017 with the objective of advancing understanding about best approaches for international cooperation in the conservation of Pterodroma and other small burrowing petrel species.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 30 March 2026

Wandering Albatross by Lea Finke of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for the inaugural World Albatross Day on 19 June 2020, after a photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Victoria Warwick-Evans (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Conservation Biology on the overlap between fisheries and Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans from two different colonies in  the South Atlantic.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Bycatch in fisheries is one of the most serious threats to pelagic seabirds, causing major population declines.  Mitigation measures can reduce bycatch substantially, but many fisheries fail to apply best practices, and seabird mortality remains high. Seabirds often segregate at sea according to sex and life-history stage, and bycatch risk can vary accordingly.  Few studies have tested whether spatial segregation among colonies in foraging areas affects bycatch risk.  We tracked nonbreeding wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) from Bird Island and neighboring Prion Island, South Georgia, to investigate whether differences in at-sea distributions and overlap with fisheries explain the contrasting population trends. Tracked individuals at Bird Island were of known status (immature or nonbreeding adults), and at Prion Island, they were most likely older immatures and potentially a few nonbreeding adults.  There was marked spatial segregation between age classes at Bird Island, but the pattern between breeding sites was more complex. The overlap with fisheries was highest in nonbreeding adults from Bird Island, which experienced a faster rate of population decline than at Prion Island, where overlap with fisheries was lower. Overlap was highest with Chinese, South Korean, and Taiwanese squid jiggers, Taiwanese pelagic longliners, and Argentinian and Spanish trawlers. By improving our knowledge of the spatiotemporal overlap of seabirds with fisheries, management initiatives can be directed at the fleets that represent the greatest threats.”

With thanks to Richard Phillips.

Reference:

Warwick-Evans, V., Pearmain, E.J. & Phillips, R.A. 2026.  Overlap of nonbreeding wandering albatrosses with fisheries and implications for colony-specific population trajectories at South Georgia.  Conservation Biology DOI: 10.1111/cobi.70260.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 27 March 2026

 
French, Portuguese and Spanish versions of this year’s World Albatross logo are now available to join the previously released English version.  All four versions, in landscape and portrait formats, may be freely downloaded for use in promoting “WAD2026” and its theme of “Habitat Restoration” on 19 June from here.

The Portuguese logo has been produced this year to recognize that the Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos, one of the two albatross species to be featured for WAD2026 with an infographic, posters and artworks, is a regular visitor to the waters of Portuguese-speaking Brazil, which is one of the 13 Parties to the Agreement.

This year’s logo has been produced by by illustrator Namasri “Namo” Niumim, who resides in Bangkok, Thailand.  Namo is not new to ACAP, as she has produced all the ACAP Species Infographics to date.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 26 March 2026