Seabird nesting islands are unique ecosystems that are home not only to birds but also many other organisms found nowhere else. We focus on places where we can make the greatest conservation gains — and help other species in the process.
Through the Socorro Island Restoration Project, we are helping to bring the Townsend’s Shearwater—now down to fewer than 100 breeding pairs—back from the brink of extinction.
Led by Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas and supported by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), we’re removing invasive predators such as feral cats that take shearwater chicks and adults and threaten Socorro Mockingbird and other AZE-listed land birds.
A predator-proof seabird colony within Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge will provide safe breeding habitat for two endangered seabirds: Newell’s Shearwater and Hawaiian Petrel.
We will translocate chicks from colonies vulnerable to predators into this new protected area. Project partners include Pacific Rim Conservation, Kauaʻi Endangered Seabird Recovery Project, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge with support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).
See project video: Hawaiian Petrels Journey to Safety.
To save the Pink-footed Shearwater, we work on remote Chilean islands with partners Oikonos and Chile’s Corporación Nacional Forestal (CONAF). Together, we are building local capacity to protect shearwaters from poaching, invasive predators, and the threat of fisheries bycatch. The project is supported by NFWF.
To increase populations of Laysan Albatross, ABC and its partners Pacific Rim Conservation and USFWS are moving albatross eggs from a nesting area with high human disturbance to a protected site at James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge in Hawai’i.
Waved Albatross conservation requires finding solutions on land and at sea. With funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, ABC is implementing new techniques to reduce harmful fishery interactions with Waved Albatross in the small boat artisanal hake fisheries operating out of ports in Ecuador.
In the Galapagos, where most of the birds breed, ABC is working with researchers from Colorado State University to make an estimate of the breeding population and the extent of the threat of disease to this population.
ABC is seeking solutions to reduce fisheries’ impacts to seabirds. We’re working with fishermen to make practical changes to reduce bycatch in Ecuador, Peru, and Chile with partners ProDelphinus and Oikonos. Our policy-based program responds to changes in laws, treaties, and policies that affect seabirds, their prey, and the habitats they depend upon.
