The wings of the black-footed albatross stretch a majestic six feet (two meters) across. Like other member of the albatross group, they can fly for hours, so at home on the waves' winds that their flight looks effortless. They migrate hundreds of miles and may remain at sea for years without ever touching land. A tropical wanderer like the Laysan albatross, the black-footed albatross breeds on the Northern Hawaiian Islands. These birds forage in the cooler waters north of the breeding colonies.

Dave Anderson used satellite-tracking technologies to show that the black-footed albatross searches for food from Midway Island to the California coast and up the West Coast of the United States to Alaska. The foraging area extends slightly farther south than that of the Laysan albatross, and they feed during the day.

Given their large size, many species of albatross can easily carry satellite tags. We've used tagging technology to study their behaviors and flight patterns for several years. They're easy to tag, because the birds flock by the thousands at breeding colonies, and return to those same breeding colonies no matter if they're laying eggs or not. Breeding adults make foraging trips lasting a few days to several weeks. Non-breeding adults return to the island during the beginning of the mating season. During this time, we can put archival tags on adults and juveniles and recover the tags when the birds return the following year.

Albatrosses live long, mature slowly, and raise only a single offspring each year. As a result, these birds are particularly sensitive to human impacts, the largest one being the long-line fisheries that snag albatross around the globe as bycatch. This has lead to declines in some populations. To reduce the number of albatross deaths, it's critical to identify the areas where albatrosses and long-line fisheries overlap. A number of methods exist that are proven to reduce seabird bycatch in the long-line fleet with out hampering fishing efforts.

Wikipedia: Black-footed Albatross

National Wildlife Refuge: Midway Atoll

Audubon Watchlist: Black-footed Albatross Endangered

Shaffer, Scott A. (Seabird Group Leader)
Research Biologist and Lecturer
Univeristy of California, Santa Cruz

Anderson, David J.
Wake Forest University

Antolos, Michelle
Ph.D. student
University of California, Santa Cruz


Costa, Daniel P.
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of California, Santa Cruz

Croll, Don
Long Marine Laboratory

University of California, Santa Cruz

Harvey, Jim
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

Henry, Bill
Ph.D. student
Center for Ocean Health, Long Marine Laboratory

University of California, Santa Cruz

Hodum, Peter
University of Washington

Parrish, Julia
University of Washington

Tremblay, Yann
Long Marine Laboratory
University of California, Santa Cruz

Weimerskirch, Henri
Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chize