Time with the Albatrosses in the
by
The facts are stark: there are
22 species of albatross; 9 are vulnerable; 7 are endangered; 3 are critically
endangered. That leaves only 3 species that aren’t threatened. We may not have much time.
One of the endangered species is the black-browed albatross.
Roughly half the world population of these birds breed on 2 small islands in
the Falklands, Steeple Jason and
Frightening because of the facts: counts on Steeple Jason
show a reduction of 43,000 thousand (yes, thousand) breeding black-browed
albatrosses between 1987 and 2005; this is a 20% decline. These birds are 3
years old before they pair and the first year they only ‘pretend’ to breed. It
is 4 years before they lay their first egg and this can be a tricky year. They
haven’t done it before, they are probably nesting on the outer rim of the
colony, they may not be very good at incubating or feeding the chick (remember
they may have to fly thousands of miles to find food). If one of the pair is
caught by the long-line of a fishing fleet then the chick will certainly die. And
the adult left has to start pairing all over again; it will be at least 2 years
before another egg is laid.
This situation, AJ reported, is unsustainable, there are too
many albatrosses dying on the long-lines.
It was breeding time on Steeple Jason when AJ was there. He
surveyed petrels and rock hopper and gentoo penguins;
he planted tussock grass and saw a rare Sierra finch (forming a twitch of two
people!). His most important job, however, was to take part in ringing birds
for the long-term study of the breeding pairs of the black-browed albatross.
The birds spend most of their life at sea and very little is
known of their movements except when they are breeding. By ringing a large
sample of pairs of albatrosses, and subsequently their chicks, the aim of the
study is to find out more about their survival. In addition, some birds are
being satellite tagged, enabling their movements to be followed for up to 40
days. Knowing where the albatrosses feed will inform and focus the work with
the long-line fishing industry.
The birds nest on pedestals, and AJ gave a graphic and very
funny account of ringing a brooding adult. It involved removing the egg,
attaching a ring to the albatross’s leg, spraying the bird so it is possible to
see when it has changed places on the nest with its partner, returning the egg
– and getting away without breaking the egg or losing it to a great skua, all the while trying to avoid the large, strong beak
of the albatross. I can’t believe it was fun all the time! The chosen pedestals
were marked and each bird’s partner was ringed when they returned; the aim was
to ring the chicks from those pedestals too. And to carry on
next year – and the next.
There was more, much more,
in this talk. About the simple mitigation measures that the fishermen could
take to avoid killing the birds and about why most fishermen don’t take
them. About the need,
not only for facts about albatrosses, but also for publicity to raise awareness
of the problem. But for AJ it was, so he says, a privilege to go to
Steeple Jason and work with the albatrosses, and I felt it a privilege to hear
about it and carried the albatrosses home in my head.
If you want to know more go to www.savethealbatross.net or www.rspb.org.uk and follow the links to albatrosses.
Penny Avant