We celebrate World Albatross Day on June 19th to mark the date the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) was signed in 2001. This year’s theme is plastic pollution and Laysan Albatrosses are particularly vulnerable to plastic ingestion in addition to the other threats they face (see inforgraphic below). Click here for more World Albatross Day information from ACAP. 

And click here to read an in depth review of how science and policy are linked through seabirds and plastics.

Albatrosses are one of the most threatened groups of birds, but there are solutions to many of the problems they face. For example, the Albatross Task Force have been working hard to reduce bycatch in fisheries.

Albatrosses are some of the best studied seabird species, and tracking data has played an important role in albatross conservation worldwide. The Seabird Tracking Database began as a collection of tracking data for Albatrosses and large petrels in 2004 and currently contains data for all 22 albatross species. Browse your favourite species in the database here, for example, these Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross foraging trips from Gough Island collected by Ben Dilley and Peter Ryan.

Art and legend has also been inspired by albatrosses, and you can read more about this in this BirdLife news article.