Albatross Chick Banding

We started Albatross chick banding this week. We are attempting to band every Albatross chick on the island within 6 weeks. The estimation is that there are about 3,000 chicks in total. To band an Albatross you work in teams of 2. One person is the bander/recorder and the other is the catcher. To catch and Albatross you approach a chick, grab it by the back of the neck with one hand and then grab the bill with the other. While holding the bill shut you scope up the bird by placing your free hand around its far wing, under its bell, and pinning the wings to your chest and arms. You then turn your back to the wind. This is done to prevent a bird from breaking its wing in the case a wing wriggles free from your arms (the wing will be pushed forward by the wind instead of back). The bander then quickly but carefully puts a metal FWS band on the birds right leg and a field readable colored band on the birds left leg. The bird is then released gently and away from the Sooty Tern eggs that seem to cover the entire island. If the Sootys are lucky the Albatross will not panic too much and no eggs will get crushed. Although this under taking is a lot of work, it is extremely satisfying to walk the island and see all the Albatross chicks banded and only a few weeks away from flight.



The birds are losing there down and growing their adult feathers rapidly now. It is sad to see the really small, under fed chicks. Although a lot of the chicks will survive to fledging there are some that for one reason or another are not getting fed enough food to reach adult size, grow feathers, and eventually fly. A few of the reasons the chicks are malnourished are, inexperience of the parents, too much plastic ingested (they actually starve because they are full of plastic), or one or both of the parents has died. Sadly every year an alarming number of Albatross die on the long line hooks set by fisherman all over the oceans. To a bird that feeds on floating fish eggs, squid, and other readily available food floating on the surface of the sea, a baited floating hook has buffet written all over it. So if the hooks set by the fisherman don't sink quick enough, Albatross swoop down for and easy meal and end up hooked and dragged under to drown. This is a common occurrence that some fisherman alleviate by setting quicker sinking hooks, in combination with flying streamers and other objects that scare and distract the birds from what seems to them to be a free meal. With a little awareness on both the fisherman's side and the consumers side, the problem of catching Albatross should and could be remedied. More information can be found all over the Internet by simple typing the key words "Albatross and long lines" into a search engine. One website in particular that I found to have some good information on this problem is, www.surfbirds.com/news/albatross.html. Albatross are not the only animal affected by long lining practices. Other pelagic seabirds, sea turtles, seals and other (non targeted) fish, all fall victim to long lines.

As a consumer you can do your part by knowing the source of your seafood. This may not seem like an easy task but the Internet is a great tool for researching the types of seafood most directly related to these deaths. And remember, it wasn't too long ago that it was almost impossible to find organic and fair trade goods at your local grocery store and now even Walmart is catching on. The voice of the masses is usually heard, we just need to rally the masses. I will step off my soap box now. Hope all are well, miss you all.

Aloha, Tim.