On a windswept bluff on Hawaii’s island of Oahu, conservationists and the U.S. Navy are teaming up to protect albatrosses from an uncertain future. 

Since 2014, the partnership has aimed to establish a new, higher colony of Laysan albatrosses (Phoebastria immutabilis) in James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge. The long-lived seabirds prefer to nest in low-lying areas near the ocean, making them particularly vulnerable to rising seas and high waves—both projected to increase as the world warms.