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title: "Mixed news for the Amsterdam Albatross - ACAP's rarest species"
---

# Mixed news for the Amsterdam Albatross - ACAP's rarest species

The Amsterdam Albatross *Diomedea amsterdamensis* is endemic to France's Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean and is ACAP's  rarest listed species.  When first described as a full species (as recently as 1983) there were only nine breeding pairs present on the island, with a low of five in 1984.  The breeding population has risen over the years to 26 annually breeding pairs in 2007 (with a peak of 32 pairs in 2001 after a previous poor breeding season).

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/A/Amsterdam_Albatross_by_Scott_Shaffer.jpg "Amsterdam Albatross.  Photograph by Scott Shaffer")

 The good news of this approximate five-fold increase is offset by continuing concern that the bird remains at risk from the twin effects of longline mortality and climate change.  This concern is discussed in a paper published on-line in the January 2010 issue of the ornithological journal [*Ibis* ](http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0019-1019)by Phillipe Rivalan and colleagues at the Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé in France ([www.cebc.cnrs.fr](http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/)).  The paper concludes that an additional annual mortality of only six birds would "rapidly put this species at risk of extinction" and calls for the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission ([IOTC](http://www.iotc.org)) to address the longlining mortality issue.

 [Click here](https://www.acap.aq/acap-species) to view the ACAP Species Assessment for the Amsterdam Albatross.  See also [http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120817408/abstract](http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120817408/abstract).

 **Reference:**

 Rivalan, P., Barbraud, C., Inchausti, P. & Weimerskirch, H. 2010.  Combined impacts of longline fisheries and climate on the persistence of the Amsterdam Albatross *Diomedia*[sic] *amsterdamensis*.  *Ibis*152: 6-18.  [http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122684273/PDFSTART](http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122684273/PDFSTART).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 December 2009*