Tristram's storm petrel has a distribution across the north Pacific Ocean, predominantly in tropical seas.

All of its breeding colonies in Hawaii are protected areas, but the species has undergone declines in the past due to introduced rats on Torishima Island.

In the early 21st century, the Tristam's storm petrel were included in a study of plastic ingestion by birds, at Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals.

[6] The species is named after Reverend Henry Baker Tristram, who also collected natural history specimens.

[7] The holotype specimen of Oceanodroma tristrami Salvin (Cat.Bds.Brit.Mus., 25,1896, p.347) is held in the vertebrate zoology collection of World Museum, National Museums Liverpool, with accession number NML-VZ T9781.