The Falkland Islands seabird populations are of global importance. 

An estimated 72% of the world’s Black-browed Albatross breeds in the Islands, which are also home to the majority of the world’s Southern Rockhopper Penguin, Gentoo Penguin and Southern Giant Petrel populations.

The Falklands Seabird Monitoring Programme has been around since 1989 and involves visiting a number of sites around the Falkland Islands to keep a track of key population sizes.

The government-funded work typically takes 8 weeks to complete and provides annual estimates of breeding numbers in November and breeding success in January.

The data that is gathered helps assess the international conservation status of each species and since the programme started, the Black-browed Albatross has been moved off the ‘Endangered’ list to ‘Least Concern’, with the Gentoo Penguin also recently downgraded from ‘Near-Threatened’.