The sooty shearwater was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin under the binomial name Procellaria grisea.

[5][6] The genus name Ardenna was used to refer to a seabird by Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603, and the specific epithet grisea is medieval Latin for "grey".

In poor viewing conditions, it looks all black, but in good light, it shows as dark chocolate-brown with a silvery strip along the centre of the underwing.

[14] They are spectacular long-distance migrants, following a circular route,[17] traveling north up the western side of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans at the end of the nesting season in March–May, reaching subarctic waters in June–July, where they cross from west to east, then return south down the eastern side of the oceans in September–October, reaching to the breeding colonies in November.

They do not migrate as a flock, but rather as individuals, associating only opportunistically; in June 1906, for example, two were shot near Guadalupe Island off Baja California, Mexico, several weeks before the bulk of the population would pass by.

[21] These shearwaters nest in burrows lined with plant material, which are visited only at night to avoid predation by large gulls and skuas.

[1] On August 18, 1961, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that thousands of crazed sooty shearwaters[24] were sighted on the shores of North Monterey Bay in California, regurgitating anchovies, flying into objects, and dying on the streets.

Scientists looking at the stomach contents of turtles and seabirds gathered in 1961 Monterey Bay ship surveys found that toxin-making algae were present in 79% of the plankton[26] the creatures ate.

Plankton expert Raphael Kudela of USC points to leaky septic tanks installed amid a housing boom around Monterey Bay in the early 1960s as the ultimate culprit that may have fed the toxic algae:[27] "It is to some extent a natural phenomenon, and the best thing we can do is monitor for the presence of toxins, and treat impacted wildlife."