It is found in the Pitcairn Islands, and possibly in French Polynesia, though confusion over the taxon makes reports of this species in the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Australs and Gambiers uncertain.

[4] During Captain Cook's first voyage, Daniel Solander recorded in his manuscript on 21 March 1769 his observations on a new petrel, on which he named Procellaria atrata.

Mathews renamed it Pterodroma atrata, since dark-plumage birds of this species were considered to be dark-morph Herald petrels.

The Pacific rat (Rattus exulans), thought to have been introduced by local Polynesian traders, has almost wiped out the existing colony, devouring 25,000 petrel chicks per annum.

To save the species from imminent extinction, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, in a last-ditch £1.5 million project,[6] mounted an attempt to achieve a massive rodent cull to exterminate the predator population on the island.