Exploring Albatross Movements

Black-footed Albatross resting at sea in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, approximtely 45 km northwest of San Francisco. The antenna attached to its back feathers with tape is visible in the photo. This albatross was tagged on July 11th, 2007, along with 9 other individuals. © Sophie Webb 2007

What's New

Live Maps of Albatross Journeys from Kure Atoll coming in June 2008
Winged Ambassadors - Race for a Clean Ocean

Interactive Art - Take a Pelagic Trip off California

Middle School math and science program uses Albatross Tracking Data
Online Maps and Resources - Animals in Curricula-based Ecosystem Studies

More Albatross Pages

Ocean Stewardship
Free Materials for Classroom Activities

Articles
Just a trip to the store..on wide wide wings - Wildlife Conservation
Wonderous Ocean Wanderers - Hydrosphere

Natural History and Conservation

Project Description - The Albatross Collaborative

Oikonos is collaborating with Hawa'ii Pacific University, U.S. Geological Survey, Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, State of Hawai'i, the Papahanaumokukea Marine National Monument, and Signals of Spring to improve our understanding of albatross ecology and encourage public stewardship of the open ocean. The fifth year of this project will continue in July 2008 from Kure Atoll and Cordell Bank.

The project addresses three main priorities:

1. Enhance the understanding of Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) post-breeding migration, movement patterns, and overlap with longline fisheries and concentrations of marine debris across the North Pacific

2. Participate in working groups to design and implement conservation strategies for Black-footed Albatross

3. Encourage stewardship of ocean ecosystems through the participation of middle and high-school students in albatross tracking and pollution studies

Image:: Soaring Black-footed Albatross carrying a satellite tag © Mike Danzenbaker 2004
Map: Red circles mark locations of one albatross traveling from Cordell Bank off San Francisco, California, to the western Pacific Ocean from July 26 to August 19, 2004.

Rational

In 2003, IUCN raised the status of the Black-footed Albatross to “endangered”, due to projected declines from longline fisheries bycatch. This deteriorating conservation status has stimulated a population assessment and a comprehensive research plan for the species (USFWS, in press). Because albatross range across management zones and jurisdictions, they are susceptible to broadly-distributed threats in national waters and the high-seas. Thus, international collaboration is critical.

The U.S. National Plan of Action for Reducing the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries (NPOA-S), developed to address seabird bycatch under the auspices of the United Nations, states that NMFS and USFWS work together to reduce seabird mortalities. While effective bycatch mitigation methods have been implemented in some U.S. longline fisheries (Alaska, Hawaii, California), these efforts only cover part of the year-round marine range of albatross.

Information on the distributions and movements of other protected species has been used to delineate high-risk times and areas where mitigation measures are necessary (Polovina et al. 2000, Melvin et al. 2006). Satellite tracking provides an ideal large-scale perspective to assess how far-ranging albatross overlap with threats and management jurisdictions.

Methods
We will use satellite telemetry and remote sensing imagery to forge a dynamic perspective of the movements and habitats of individually tracked albatrosses. Due to the far ranging habits of this species, telemetry data will span a large region of the North Pacific Ocean. We will tag 30-50 post-breeding individuals at the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary (CBNMS), off central California in three seasons (2004 - 2007), and will track their movements during 3-months spanning the summer migration.

Cordell Bank is a rocky underwater granite ridge that is 8 1/2 miles long by 4 1/2
miles wide. Its close proximity to deep water attracts wildlife from afar, including Albatross, to visit this
biologically rich ecosystem. (Map:USGS)

Cordell Bank

Cordell Bank is a shallow (summit depth < 40m) elliptical (14 X 5 km) bank of steep-sided ridges and pinnacles located at the edge of the continental shelf, approximately 38 km from Bodega Bay, (36.5 - 38.5 deg. N.; 122 - 124 deg. W), central California. The Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary was established in 1989 to protect this seamount from impacts associated with hydrocarbon development (www.sanctuaries.nos.noaa.gov/oms/omscordell/omscordell.htm). In addition to the rich and diverse invertebrate community, Cordell Bank supports large numbers of seabirds and cetaceans, which are thought to aggregate at this bathymetric feature in response to enhanced ocean productivity and prey availability. In particular, five albatross species, including the highly endangered Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus), have been sighted at Cordell Bank in recent years (NOAA in press). These species do not breed in the CCS, but travel to Cordell Bank from breeding grounds in the Central Pacific and the southern hemisphere.

Outreach and Education

Free teaching activities developed by Oikonos focus on teaching about Black-footed Albatross research, their fascinating life history, satellite tracking, lab-based scientific investigations and plastic pollution prevention:

Link to Ocean Stewardship page

Oikonos also works closely with CBNMS and Signals of Spring education programs to infuse marine conservation issues into middle and high-school curriculum standards nationally and locally via the charismatic Black-footed Albatross.