The island was formerly owned by New York philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, who later donated it to the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

Steeple Jason is home to the largest colony of black-browed albatrosses in the world.

The Magellanic penguin is near the southern part of its range here,[3] but the more cold-tolerant gentoo also occurs substantially south into Antarctica.

The sole mammalian life is marine, e.g. sea lions and fur seals.

Birds and other wildlife on Steeple Jason Island are in many cases under threat, chiefly due to overfishing in the South Atlantic Ocean over the last century.