Above picture: Northern Giant Petrel, artwork by Peter Shearer; after his own photograph

Since 2020, members of the international collective Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) have been painting and drawing the world’s 22 species of albatrosses in support of World Albatross Day held every year on 19 June.  The collaboration has resulted in over 500 artworks becoming available to support conservation of the world’s albatrosses. These are used by the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) to illustrate website articles, posters, on social media, and to promote World Albatross Day.

The MFM Project is delighted to announce it has initiated a collaboration with the many ABUN artists on a Special Project entitled the  Conservation Campaign for Marion Island, for which the very first artwork to be submitted, of a Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes halli, is featured above.  Peter Shearer, a wildlife artist and photographer who resides in Wellington, New Zealand, writes “I found a B/W pencil sketch I did of this bird in 2019 from a photo I took in 2014.  I then added colour and more details digitally using Procreate on my iPad.”  To great result!

Campaign banner design by Marion Schön

Four albatross species breed on Marion Island, for which several artworks, originally painted for ACAP, are now available for use by the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project.  The Conservation Campaign for Marion Island Special Project will therefore concentrate on those other aspects of Marion Island life that are known to be seriously affected by the introduced House Mice.  These include the other seabird species (especially the burrowing petrels), invertebrates (such as flightless moths and weevils) and the plants (mainly grasses, forbs and mosses).  Marion Island’s spectacular landscapes are also set to form a part of the Special Project.

The Special Project, set to run during the two months of November and December this year, is being ably led by (and aptly named) Marion Schön, an ABUN artist in her own right who resides in Germany.  Marion will be posting artworks as they are submitted on ABUN’s Facebook page, where an album includes an increasing number of photographs taken on Marion Island to inspire the artists.  The artworks will also appear in an album on MFM’s Facebook page.

Wandering Albatrosses on Marion Island, digital line drawing created by Marion Schön for the children’s colouring-in competition that formed part of the inaugural World Albatross Day on 19 June 2020; after a photograph by Michelle Risi

Artworks produced by ABUN artists will be used to raise funds for and awareness of the problems caused by mice on Marion Island and the intended solution to be implemented by the MFM Project.  They will be used to illustrate its newsletters, weekly news articles on its website and in its social media channels.  Thanks to Marion and all the contributing ABUN artists in advance!

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 26 November 2024

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Marion Island’s mountainous interior following a snowstorm; photograph by Danielle Keys

The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean.  The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.  Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate.  For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.