Scott Shaffer, UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA -- There's excitment in the air, hormones are raging, lots of singing and dancing, and well..... albatrosses are doing what comes naturally at this time of year. They're breeding.

Thousands of albatross die each year from entanglement with fishing gear. Primarily, albatrosses scavenge for baits containing hooks that are dropped over the side of vessels fishing for tuna and other pelagic fish (see BirdLife International's website "Save the Albatross" for more details. Of course the birds don't know that when they bite into the fish, they are being hooked and eventually pulled underwater by the wait of the longline as it sinks. Unfortunately, this is one of the greatest threats to albatross populations.

Scott Shaffer monitoring Black-footed Albatross. Well, a total of 9 albatross fledglings have been equipped with satellite transmitters and they have all