Short-Tailed Albatross

Celia Chaussabel

http://www.animalspot.net/short-tailed-albatross.html

    The short-tailed albatross is a large seabird with long, narrow wings (about 7 feet long on average) for gliding over the water’s surface and a disproportionately large bill. They are recognizable by their entirely white backs, pink, blue-tipped bills, and gold heads. Long-lived and slow to mature, the short-tailed albatross is a K-selected species.

http://www.ejphoto.com/shorttailed_albatross_page.htm

http://www.animalspot.net/short-tailed-albatross.html

    Little of the short-tailed albatross’ diet while at sea is known, but scientists have observed what foods they regurgitate to their young, such as squid, bonito, shrimp, flying fish, and sardines. They reside all along the coast of the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea, but require isolated islands to breed on, which they find in the Pacific Ocean near Japan.

http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/090520.pdf

    The short-tailed albatross used to be the most abundant of three North Pacific albatross species, but they were overexploited in the early 1900s for their feathers and believed to be extinct by 1950. However, a few albatrosses survived, and with the end of their overexploitation their population has bounced back, growing by 6-8% every year.

    The short-tailed albatross has been listed as endangered in its range since July 2000, and remains with that designation today.The species faces a different set of threats today than from when it was first overexploited to near extinction. Like a lot of seabirds, albatrosses risk becoming accidental bycatch, usually in longline fishing where fishing line baited with hooks are laid to drift in the ocean. There is also global climate change, which would affect ocean circulation especially so close to the arctic where all the ice caps are melting, and therefore the distribution of fish that are the source of food for albatrosses. Scientists also fear stochastic events such as bad weather (the area is prone to monsoon rains) or the eruption of a volcano. The volcano is actually a big concern, since the main breeding grounds of the short-tailed albatross are on Torishima, an island that consists entirely of an active, overdue volcano. Another concern is the toxic effects of environmental contaminants in the ocean such as oil, pesticides, and metals, which have been observed in short-tailed albatrosses.

http://www.volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=284090

http://www.antarctica.gov.au/science/southern-ocean-ecosystems-environmental-change-and-conservation/southern-ocean-fisheries

    A recovery plan was established May of 2009. It consists of monitoring populations, attempting to establish new colonies (on islands that do not have an active volcano, through methods such as chick relocation and using decoys to attract adults), enhancing existing breeding grounds (through methods such as erosion control), managing fisheries and regulations to reduce bycatch, and tracking movements using satellites and leg banding.The Japanese government has also established the short-tailed albatross and its largest breeding site, Torishima Island, a Natural Monument. This has prevented human activity on Torishima and limited the disturbance of the main short-tailed albatross colony.

    Overall, the short-tailed albatross seems to be doing well and is on its way to recovery. Efforts to establish new populations other than the one on the active volcano of Torishima will continue, as this is one of the biggest, most unpredictable threats. If the population continues to increase and meets the established thresholds (based on number of breeding pairs and growth rates), the short-tailed albatross will first be reclassified as threatened, and eventually delisted.

https://student.societyforscience.org/node/1130