Life in a cold environment - Antarctica: Global Science from a Frozen Continent - page 170

Box 6.4 Albatrosses

Figure 6.4 A wandering albatross, the largest sea bird in the world. (Credit: NOAA)

The wandering albatross is the largest seabird in the world, with a wing span up
to 3.35m, and it holds a strong place in our cultural history ( Figure 6.4 ). Gliding
on the endless wind they can cover up to 800 km in a day. On the sub-Antarctic
islands there are also grey-headed, black-browed, light-mantled sooty and royal
albatrosses. Killing these birds is reputed to bring bad luck, yet hundreds of
thousands of albatrosses have been killed in the Southern Ocean

fisheries over the
last few decades, caught on long-line hooks or drowned in gill nets ( Figure 6.5 ).
As they spend most of their lives at sea, it was not until the development of
microelectronic logging systems that scientists were able to track where they went
when they left the nest. The tracks show how the younger ones circle the
continent whilst those older ones, those with chicks, may travel down to the
Weddell Sea or up to the coast of Brazil or Africa to find food ( Figure 6.6 ).