“All shout Albatross!” Moments before the Betty’s Bay parkrun got underway, photograph by Jeremy George
The Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project marked World Albatross Day (WAD2026) and its theme of “Habitat Restoration” on 19 June with a suite of activities in Betty’s Bay. Three members of the Mouse-Free Marion Runners group drove the 100 km from Cape Town to the coastal village along False Bay’s spectacular Clarence Drive to meet up with long-time MFM Project ambassadors and local residents Chris Jones and Michelle Risi on the afternoon of World Albatross Day. Chris and Michelle have recently registered at the University of Cape Town for PhDs, with Chris studying climate-change impacts on albatrosses breeding on Marion Island and Michelle studying the demography of giant petrels Macronectes spp. on several sub-Antarctic islands, including Marion where they are threatened by introduced House Mice.
Defying the wind. From left: Chris Jones, Michelle Risi and John Cooper, MFM News Correspondent, at the Stony Point penguin colony – in our MFM activity shirts
The whole African Continent (and its coastal islands) supports no breeding albatrosses, so the first stop to mark “WAD2026” was a visit to the Stony Point Nature Reserve where Critically Endangered African Penguins Spheniscus demersus breed on the mainland. Honorary albatrosses, if you will! The friendly Cape Nature ranger on site took the required photo with a MFM Project pop-up banner on display. Following this outing, we got out of the wind to sample what is becoming a global phenomenon marking World Albatross Day – an “albicake”!
Michelle Risi decorated her home-baked “albicake” from her own photo of an Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos on Gough Island, photograph by John Cooper
We were joined for tea ‘n cake by MFM Runners (and MFM fund raisers), Jeremy George and Erica Leppan. That evening the five of us tucked in to delicious Pan Asian food (and a couple of bottles of good wine) at Betty’s Bay’s Waaygat Restaurant. A most pleasant way to end the seventh World Albatross Day, first held in 2020.
Last to leave! From left: Erica Leppan (holding the leftover wine), Jeremy George, John Cooper, Michelle Risi and Chris Jones after an excellent meal in Betty’s Bay Waaygat Restaurant, photograph by the restaurant
Befitting a running group, the next morning we participated in the 348th holding of Betty’s Bay Parkrun. Held in the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden, the 5-km fun run must be one of the most spectacular in the country with its up and down sections among indigenous vegetation, including flowering proteas. We were joined on the run by Emeritus Professor Peter Ryan (who chairs the 50-member MFM Scientific and Technical Advisory Group), his wife Emeritus Associate Professor Coleen Moloney, and Andrea Angel, Manager of BirdLife South Africa’s Albatross Task Force.
MFM Project ambassador Chris Jones powers through a 5-km parkrun in the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden, photograph from the Betty’s Bay Parkrun Facebook page
With MFM Project’s pop-up banners on display and after a few introductory words to the 223 assembled runners about the MFM Project (and the obligatory shout of “Albatross!”) the parkrun got underway. The eight of us all posted good times (except John Cooper who kept stopping for photo opportunities). Peter Ryan did the project proud by not only winning his age class, but by coming third overall in 22 minutes and 42 seconds – not at all bad for a retired professor!
Erica Leppan and John Cooper attempt to fly like an albatross in their MFM Project active shirts on one of the parkrun’s gradual climbs, photograph by Andrea Angel
Some of the MFM Runners celebrate after the parkrun. From left: Michelle Risi, John Cooper, Peter Ryan (behind), Andrea Angel and Chris Jones, photograph by Jeremy George
Chris, John and Michelle then drove to join a bread-and-soup lunch in celebration of the next day’s austral midwinter (winter solstice) by past and present participants in the South African National Antarctic Programme, held in Stellenbosch University’s Department of Botany and Zoology. Laid on by Ria Olivier, Principal Investigator of Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, we were joined by Anton Wolfaardt, MFM Project Manager, along with his artist wife, Leigh Wolfaardt – who is generously supporting the project through the sale of her Prince Edward Island albatross prints. Time for a last group photograph!
Past and present MFM Project team members and supporters at the midwinter lunch. Rear from left: Jacques Scheepers, Charlene “CJ” Janion-Scheepers, Chris Jones, John Cooper, Michelle Risi & Anton Wolfaardt. Front: Camilla Smyth, Stefan and Janine Schoombie & Lucy Smyth, photograph by the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa
For once, the aim of the MFM Project’s World Albatross Day weekend was not to raise funds for the project but to have a good time, while also spreading the word of the dire need to eliminate Marion’s mice among new audiences. Think we succeeded with both!
John Cooper. News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 01 July 2026
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Thumbs up from Michelle Risi on the Betty’s Bay Parkrun. Back in 2019, Michelle first proposed to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) that it hold a World Albatross Day, now in its seventh year. Photograph from the Betty’s Bay Parkrun Facebook page
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.
