"I now belong to a higher cult of mortals – for I have seen the albatross." Robert Cushman Murphy, American ornithologist writing to his wife from the south Atlantic in 1912.
My guess is that relatively few members of Daily Kos have ever seen an albatross. I also wager that most of you have heard of them. The photos a bit further down in this diary are my attempt to share my great fortune in experiencing them first hand. I will also explore why albatrosses have so captured the human imagination and the consequences for conservation.
Albatrosses are very large/gigantic sea birds that live most of their lives on the open ocean. Most species live and breed in the great southern ocean, the vast expanse of sea that circles the globe between approximately 40 and 60 degrees south latitude. A quick perusal of a map will reveal that, other than the southern end of South America and New Zealand there is very little land. Little land means few people.
Albatrosses are pelagic birds, meaning that they live on the open ocean and seldom venture close to continental land masses. They feed on fish and squid at sea and breed on islands. As birds, albatross need land to lay eggs and rear their young. This land needs to be free of terrestrial predators that would eat the eggs or young. It also needs to be fairly flat. Because of their size, albatrosses cannot take off very easily or land with great precision.
At sea albatrosses are a different kind of creature entirely. They look like gulls but their flight is completely different, the wings held stiffly and often gliding effortlessly for hours. The birds make amazing flights, gliding low over the ocean for days while expending very little energy.
In the larger species rearing young from egg to fledgling takes a year and pairs only attempt breeding every other year. Non-breeding birds have been known to fly completely around the world. Even foraging flights during breeding can be over a thousand miles long.
(Parenthetical note – The following section deals with the cultural significance of albatrosses – if you want to skip to the pictures look for a line of XXX).
Albatrosses have captured the imagination of humans despite the remote nature of their habitat. It is no surprise that peoples living in areas with albatrosses considered them important. The Maori consider them of immense cultural significance with albatross plumes denoting persons of the highest rank. Their myths speak of the albatross crying for its distant homeland – a reference to both the vast distances these birds travel and their habit of excreting salty water through special tubes on their beaks. The Hawaiians also venerate the albatrosses that breed in the northern Pacific.
What is most remarkable is that albatrosses came to be so important in European (including North American) culture. Europeans would have encountered albatrosses very infrequently before the 18th century when extensive sailing in the far south and in the northern Pacific began. Yet in 1798 the albatross took a gigantic step into the collective consciousness of western civilization.
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poetry that put romanticism on the British literary map. Among the poems was a very long, strange piece by Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
In this poem the mariner forces himself upon a guest late for a wedding and tells a long tale of fantastic and terrible events in the far southern ocean. A ship is trapped in the icy wilderness and is then led to freedom by an albatross. The ancient mariner then shoots the albatross and things, shall we say, do not go well from there.
And here is an illustration done in the 20th century by artist and fantasy author Mervyn Peake
And if you want to delve deeper into the poem here is the first part of an experimental filmed version with the text recited by none other than Orson Welles.
The mariner ends up with the albatross’ corpse tied around his neck as punishment for his crime. This is the origin of the phrase ‘an albatross around my neck’. Coleridge’s poem also encapsulates the contradictory views we hold of these animals and of the entire ‘natural’ world. The albatross is both a ‘pious bird of good omen’ and a source of food and target practice. They are seen as symbols of both nobility and beauty and an alien strangeness. Unlike other exotic animals albatrosses are not easily anthropomorphized. They are not cute or cuddly or spectacularly beautiful. They are not fierce. They are majestic fliers but also ungainly and vaguely comical when on the ground.
And they live in an alien world - a world of vast expanses of air and sky and really bad weather. And they were seen by lonely men far from home. A striking creature that fits into the empty spaces of the human psyche.
Other 19th century authors came under the spell of the albatross. Charles Baudelaire wrote a poem, L’Albatros which is featured in his collection Fleurs du Mal. This poem describes the shooting of albatrosses by sailor and comments on the contrast between soaring majesty and deck side awkward pathos in a metaphorical comment on artistic creation.
_The Poet is like the prince of the clouds,
Haunting the tempest and laughing at the archer;
Exiled on earth amongst the shouting people,
His giant's wings hinder him from walking._
Among other 19th century figures to comment on albatrosses in their work were Melville and Poe. Poe uses the imagery of giant white birds as the narrator heads to the ultimate south and an unknown fate at the end of ‘The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket’.
With the passing of the age of sail the albatross becomes less prominent. However it remains a symbol of both loneliness and freedom.. In their early incarnation as a blues band, Fleetwood Mac had a major hit in Britain with their instrumental "Albatross". Coincidentally I heard this played on an oldies station while driving around New Zealand.
But when all is said and done – the most important thing is that albatrosses are real animals as Monty Python reminds us.
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Now the photos
In May I had the great fortune to spend 2 weeks on the South Island of New Zealand. New Zealand is world albatross headquarters with breeding populations of most of the southern hemisphere species *. For the most part the colonies are on various sub-Antarctic islands but there is a small colony of one species on the south island itself. Although many albatross move vast distances not all do and the proximity of breeding populations means that birds can be seen off the coast of the main islands with relative ease.
*It should be noted that the number of albatross species is a disputed topic.
I was a bit worried before my arrival that bad weather might foil my dreams of seeing these birds in the wild. May is late autumn there and bad storms are possible. While we did experience some climatic unpleasantness I need not have worried. I was able to see these remarkable creatures at four different locations.
The Otago Peninsula Dunedin is the largest city in the far south of New Zealand. The Otago Peninsula runs parallel to the shore north from the city. At its tip is Taiaroa Head, a large hill that plunges down into the ocean on three sides. In the 1930s Northern Royal Albatross decided that this would be a good place to breed. Today a small breeding colony persists, protected from introduced predators by fencing and zealous conservationists.
The royal albatross is one of the two types of great albatross, the other being the wandering. These are among the largest flying birds on earth, having wingspans up to twelve feet.
My wife and I opted not to take the tour of the colony. It is very expensive and at that time of year the chicks are near fledging and the adults are hardly ever at the colony. All we would get would be distant views of the chicks. Instead we opted for a boat tour which would take us around the base of Taiaroa Head and allow us to view the colony from the water and maybe see some other wildlife as well.
Was that ever a good decision!
Here is Taiaroa Head from the water with some albatross (not the royals) in the foreground.
We were able to see a couple of chicks (very large at this point) but they were much too far away for photography. However once we were out on the Pacific a fishing boat was spotted and we headed towards it to see if we could see more albatrosses. Most species of albatross will follow boats, especially fishing boats.
Pretty soon we saw our first albatross up close.
This is a Buller’s albatross, a species endemic to New Zealand.
And this is a form of the Shy Albatross, which breeds in various locations in New Zealand and (far southern) Australian waters.
Both the Shy and Buller’s albatrosses are members of a group known as Mollymawks. They are smaller than the great albatrosses. A small mollymawk such as the Buller’s is slightly larger than the largest gull species (e.g. Great Black-backed) while the larger mollymarks like the Shy are closer to the great albatrosses. Several other features distinguish mollymawks from the great albatrosses.
- The mollymawks have proportionately shorter wings and beaks with chunkier bodies.
- Mollymawks always have black upper surfaces of their wings and the back between the wings is black. Mature great albatrosses always have white backs and, except for the northern form of the Royal Albatross, have some white on the upper surface of the wing.
- Great albatross bills are pale pink while the bills of mollymawks have a range of colors and often more than one color in the same bill.
We also saw a bunch of other cool stuff on the boat trip including a humpback whale and a colony of Stewart Island shags. We also got a brief glimpse of an adult Northern Royal Albatross but I didn’t get a picture.
Next stop – Stewart Island
Stewart Island is the third largest island in New Zealand and is just off the southern tip of the South Island. It has a single town, Oban. It is a very cool place that I will diary about later. However the amazing thing about Stewart Island is that albatross could be seen from shore.
Here is downtown Oban at sunrise
We walked out to the end of a point near town – you can see one flying above the water below.
It turned out that you could even see them in the harbor!
The main attraction – Kaikoura and Albatross Encounter!
Kaikoura is a small town on the east coast of the south island about halfway between Christchurch and the northern tip. It is a spectacularly beautiful place where multiple mountain ranges can be seen.
The mountains also block a lot of the rain from the west so it is a comparatively sunny location by NZ standards. The continental shelf is only a couple of miles offshore here, resulting in upwelling of nutrients and an abundance of marine life. Kaikoura is now an ecotourism magnet with the main attraction being whale watching tours viewing the year round population of sperm whales.
Another company, Ocean Wings provides both Dophin and Albatross tours. Guess which one is more popular? My wife and I (people of impeccable taste according to our captain) were the only passengers on that afternoon’s albatross tour.
After only ten minutes we stopped, put out the chum, and waited. Pretty soon we got some visitors
Here is a close up of a Shy Albatross (not being very shy)
Here is a Bullers with a Cape Petrel
Here is a new Mollymawk for the trip - a Black-browed Albatross. Most of these breed in the Falkland Islands and are the world's most numerous albatross.
And this is not an albatross although about the same size. It is a Northern Giant Petrel, known as the 'vulture of the sea'. Very aggressive and predatory birds.
However there were none of the ‘big boys’ to quote our captain again, by which he meant the great albatrosses. There was a report of a fishing boat coming in and so we headed further out.
Some birds followed us.
Soon we had more birds than we knew what to do with. Here is a shot showing several of the mollymawk species at once. The one in the middle is a different race of the shy albatross, called Salvin's Albatross and is sometimes considered a different species. The race of Shy Albatross we saw most commonly is known as the White-capped Albatross.
Here is a southern royal albatross. The northern royals have an all black upper wing in contrast to the other great albatrosses. You can see a small amount of white in this one's wing. The amount will increase as the bird ages. The royal is the heaviest of the albatrosses
This picture shows a southern royal and a black-browed. Although the perspective is a bit deceptive you can tell the difference in size between the two
The competition got heated and everyone except for the Wandering Albatrossses and the Giant Petrel ended up as spectators. The Wandering are significantly lighter (less heavily built) than the Royal but they have a longer wingspan and are much more aggressive.
This pretty much glutted my albatross cravings. We did see some more when we took the ferry across the Cook Strait to Wellington. This was a chance to check out my identification skills. None of them approached close enough for photography.
Albatrosses and the Future
You would think that birds roaming the vastness of the open ocean and breeding on remote islands would suffer little from human impact.
Think again.
Albatross are vulnerable because of their demography. They are very long-lived organisms that mature and reproduce very slowly. As a result they can only recover from population reductions very slowly.
Albatross require a predator free and flat environment to breed. Such locations are obviously at premium on oceanic islands. Introduced species and human disturbance can disrupt reproduction.
And now they are even in danger feeding at sea. They can ingest floating plastic which is not immediately toxic but can fill their stomach and interfere with the uptake of actual nutrients. While I don’t know for sure, I assume this is more of a threat for the northern Pacific albatrosses than for the southern ones.
The most devastating human activity for albatrosses has been long line fishing. Immensely long lines with many baited hooks are pulled behind ships. The albatross take the bait, are hooked and drown. In recent years some populations have been suffering 10% mortality a year.
Fortunately some fairly easy fixes for this problem have been worked out, modification to the long-line system that make it very difficult for the birds to get to the bait. In areas where these have been implemented the mortality of albatrosses has been greatly reduced.
If animals like this are to survive we need to have a culture where they are valued. Perhaps it is time for a new round of poetry - or perhaps an albatross reality show?
The information in this diary came from many sources. Much of the information on albatross mythology came from Roimata Toroa (Tears of the Albatross) by Anna Pallesen which is a review of albatross mythology and literature done at the University of Canterbury. A pdf can be downloaded here.
Basic information on albatross biology, taxonomy, and where to see them can be found at Ocean Wanderers a site dedicated to watching sea birds.
Here is my one good picture of an albatross in flight (a Royal, northern I think although I can't tell from this angle) - taking pictures from a boat is tricky.