Population status of albatross

The breeding ground of albatross has been well protected for a long time, because it is on an isolated island and has no natural enemies. But since it was discovered by sailors, it has suffered great losses: eggs were taken away and adult birds were killed. Feathers have been plundered because they are used to make human clothes and bedding. The short-tailed albatross was almost extinct because humans collected their feathers: hundreds of thousands of birds were killed, and the breeding behavior of species stopped completely in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This species survived because the immature birds were not in the breeding group at that time, but wandering in the sea, which was relatively safe. Later they came back according to the established route, thus "saving" the whole game. Since 1954 resumed breeding, the number of short-tailed albatrosses in Nanniao Island, Japan has gradually increased, and the size of one of the main breeding groups has reached about 200 pairs. The black-backed albatross is seriously threatened because midway in the north-central Pacific Ocean has become an American air base. This bird nests around military bases and airport runways, and many of them collide with antennas and planes and die.

Albatrosses face more hidden dangers at sea. In addition to the harm caused by oil spill and chemical pollutants, the more imminent threat comes from human fishing activities. Although gill nets are now prohibited from being used on the high seas, the so-called "longline fishing" is widely used to catch bottom fish, such as Chilean bass, and fish in middle waters, such as tuna. Only one longline for tuna fishing is 100 km long. After the extension line is put in place, the erbium hook will spread out from the bow of the fishing boat. For this temptation, albatrosses can hardly resist. They swallowed the bait, took the bait, were dragged into the water by the longline, and were finally pulled up by fishermen with other prey a few hours later. As many as 44,000 albatrosses are killed every year, which leads to the decrease of some species in the Southern Ocean.

Some practical measures can effectively reduce this threat, such as laying ropes at night. At the same time, international organizations are actively persuading relevant countries and fishing fleets to adopt fishing methods that are harmless to albatrosses. However, with the further development of fishing fleets around the world in the southern waters, a new threat has emerged, that is, humans may directly compete with albatrosses and other animals for marine biological resources such as krill and squid, which will inevitably affect their survival. Midway Island is located in the "heart of the Pacific Ocean", and it is about 32 19 kilometers away from the nearest mainland. This small island, which played an important role in World War II but few people cared about it, finally belonged to the Albatross.

Every July and August, thousands of adult albatrosses gather over Midway Island, and the white figure covers most of the blue sky. Pairs of albatrosses come back from the distant ocean for food, glide to the hungry albatrosses, ruminate on digested or semi-digested food and feed it to their children. They are the largest birds in the world and have the widest wings of any living bird-their wingspan can reach 3.5 meters in flight. For hundreds of years, they have shared this island with turtles and pelicans, but it has the reputation of "paradise on earth".

However, these carefree "island owners" are suffering from the biggest threat in history. In September 2009, when Chris Jordan, a 46-year-old photographer and artist from Seattle, USA, first set foot on Midway Island, he was shocked by what he saw: albatross corpses rotting in the scorching sun were everywhere on the ground, surrounded by pieces of plastic garbage. After cutting open the bodies of young albatrosses, Jordan found that the bellies of these young birds were full of undivided colored plastic garbage: lighters, bottle caps, combs, toothbrush handles and plastic fragments of various shapes. These plastics are the "food" that albatross "parents" brought back for their children by flying thousands of miles.

Thousands of young birds died tragically before they could wait for their first flight to the sea as adults. Jordan saw an albatross cub born a few months ago. Its abdomen contained seven or eight kinds of plastic garbage, and one third of its stomach was plastic. Swallowing plastic products prevents them from eating other foods, and sometimes plastic fragments even cut their esophagus, leading to suffocation, hunger and dehydration.

They can instinctively find squid, fish and shrimp, but as the whole Pacific Ocean is increasingly polluted by plastic, seabirds can easily mistake plastic garbage for food, making it a deadly poison that causes the death of albatross larvae.