Above picture: Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross by Maureen Rousseau of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN), after a photograph by Kirk Zufelt
The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) has announced “Effects of Disease” as its theme for this year’s World Albatross Day (WAD2025), the sixth to be held, on 19 June 2025.
This year’s theme continues the tradition of featuring specific threats that albatrosses (and ACAP-listed petrels) face. It follows on from the inaugural theme “Eradicating Island Pests” in 2020, “Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries” in 2021, “Climate Change” in 2022, “Plastic Pollution” in 2023, and “Marine Protected Areas” in 2024.
Two albatross species are being used to support the theme for this year’s World Albatross Day, with a photography competition, posters, infographics and previously produced artworks by Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN). One is the Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche carteri that breeds on islands in the southern Indian Ocean, including on South Africa’s Prince Edward Island. This species is particularly at risk from Pasteurella multocida that causes avian cholera, and Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae (causing erysipelas) on France’s Amsterdam Island, where its breeding population has been decreasing. The second species is the Endangered Amsterdam Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis, which is endemic to Amsterdam Island.
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross and chick, Prince Edward Island; photograph by Peter Ryan
ACAP also plans an infographic depicting the sequential spread of Highly Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus to islands of the Southern Ocean. The infographic will include Marion Island, where the HPAI virus is thought to be causing mortalities in Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans during the 2024/25 summer (click here). Confirmation awaits the analysis of samples that have recently been returned to South Africa.
At risk: a Wandering Albatross chick on Marion Island; photograph by Lucy Smyth
With the possible presence of the HPAI virus on the island, the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project team, along with other field researchers, has been closely monitoring the situation, following training to recognise possible signs of HPAI in birds and seals, and in the necessary monitoring and mitigation methods. Researchers have been taking all necessary precautions to ensure they do not spread the virus. To this end, the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, the management authority for the Prince Edward Islands, has developed a “Protocol for the Management of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza in Seabirds” together with the Western Cape Veterinary Services, marine ornithologists, marine mammal biologists, disease experts and colleagues overseas with similar experience.
WAD2025 will draw on ACAP’s 13-member Intersessional Group of Experts on Epidemiology, Disease Risk Assessment and Management (the HPAI Group) to guide it in featuring this year’s disease theme. To this end, it will work closely with Patricia Pereira Serafini, Co-convenor of the Agreement’s Population and Conservation Status Working Group (PaCSWG) and lead member of the HPAI Group.
John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 21 February 2025
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Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross by ABUN artist Lea Finke, after a photograph by Kirk Zufelt
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.
