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Albatross
Albatrosses are extraordinary seabirds, capable of traveling over 1,000 km a day as they soar across the Southern Ocean on the largest wingspan of any living bird.
They have long lifespans, indeed the oldest known wild bird is a Laysan albatross named ‘Wisdom’, found in the North Pacific and first ringed in 1956. The albatross has been immortalised in poetry since 1798, in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, however these emblematic creatures are in decline. All species lay just a single egg, with many breeding every second year only. This decline is hastened by bycatch on baited tuna hooks and collisions with trawl net cables. Fortunately, conservation efforts are underway. The British Antarctic Survey, a major contributor to polar research, is focused on protective measures including setting lines at night, weighting hooks so they sink quickly and setting ‘tori’ lines - brightly coloured streamers to scare off birds.