Scott Shaffer, at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab. Only two out of the nine satellite-tagged fledgling albatrosses that took to the air for the first time in July are still sending back signals. A Laysan and a black-footed albatross are still transmitting their positions as they soar across the wide Pacific Ocean. But, along with another black-footed albatross who stopped reporting about 10 days ago, these birds sent back locations for 117-119 days. That's our new record!! The black-footed albatross who's still reporting has flown an astounding 15,000 miles (25,000 km)!!

Since the last transmission we received from the second black-footed albatross was on Nov. 11, it's likely that we won't be hearing from this bird anymore . As with the others, we don't know what happened, but nothing unusual appeared in the signals. So, either the transmitter fell off or the bird met an untimely end, naturally or by the hand, or fishing hook, of humans. Nature and humans can be cruel.

The two remaining birds, however, are definitely racking up the frequent flyer miles. Below is the latest image showing the tracks of the birds since they flew from the shores of Midway Atoll in July. Midway's the green dot; the red dots show the birds' current positions.

The bird with the black track is our Laysan albatross fledgling (here's a photo of one); it's flying down the Japanese coastline. This tag only reports once a week, so the movements aren't very detailed, but its track is fascinating. I had no idea that Laysan albatross fledglings traveled to Japan. I figured it would head to waters north of the atoll where adults spend the summer before returning to breed again in November.

The bird with the blue track is a black-footed albatross; its tag reports every other day. It looks like this bird's foraging skills developed quickly, because it's traveling almost exclusively along the North Pacific Current transition zone where food should be plentiful. Before its transmitter stopped reporting, the other black-footed only traveled 7,200 miles (12,000 km), within a relatively small area compared to the other two. It's interesting to ponder why this happened. Perhaps it didn't realize how big the Pacific Ocean is. It's hard to say.

Hopefully, we'll be able to track the two remaining birds for a while longer to further unravel the mysteries of their first year at sea.