The Laysan Albatrosses have survived the feather trade, commercial fishing, and plastics. There are 22 albatross species around the world, of which 15 species are vulnerable or endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). However, the population of Laysan Albatrosses is at its highest in a century.

Laysan Albatross

The Laysan Albatross lives in the open sea, a pelagic bird, on the open Pacific Ocean.

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Riding the winds Laysan Albatrosses can soar hundreds of miles per day.

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Breeding colonies can be found on the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Kauai during the months of November to July.

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Range Map

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A True Survivor

The Laysan Albatross has survived the feather trade, industrial fishing, and the ocean garbage patch. And now the Laysan Albatross is up against the forces of nature from a changing planet.

The Feather Trade

At the start of the 20th century the feather trade decimated the population of Laysan Albatrosses.

Designers in Paris, New York, and other fashion centers adorned hats with feathers. To increase sales designers created more exotic hat designs and feather displays.

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To meet the demand for feathers millinery houses in America and Europe traded bird feathers internationally.

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To supply Western hat designers and makers, Japanese feather hunters began eradicating Hawaiian seabird colonies in 1902. Before the hunting began there was an estimated half-million breeding pairs of Laysan Albatrosses on the Laysan Island. The National Audubon Society and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 put an end to the feather trade. After the feather trade was banned in 1922, it was estimated there were only 18,000 breeding pairs of Laysan Albatrosses in the world.

The resilient Laysan Albatrosses made a comeback. By 1958 it was estimated that there were 280,000 breading pairs of Laysan Albatrosses.

Industrial Fishing

The demand for seafoods such as tuna, haddock, cod, swordfish, and Chilean sea bass in the 20th century created the commercial fishing industry. The commercial fishing fleets employed two different kinds of fishing techniques, drift nets and longline rigs, that are particularly bad for albatrosses.

Drift Nets

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It was estimated that commercial drift net fishing in the open North Pacific ocean was killing 27,500 albatrosses per year.

In 1992 drift netting was banned by international agreement.

Longlines

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Commercial longline fishing fleets use lines up to 60 miles long. An Australian biologist in 1991 estimated that commercial Japanese longline tuna fleets were setting over 100 million hooks and killing 44 thousand albatrosses per year.

Biologists worked with longline fishermen to develop a strategy that was straightforward, inexpensive, didn't reduce the fish catch, and prevented bird deaths.

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Three simple measures were found to be 90% effective when used together.

• Hang gaudy streamer lines behind the longline ship to scare birds away from the freshly baited hooks as they sank.
• Weight the freshly baited lines so that they sink faster.
• Only bait the hooks at night. This is because seabirds are less active at night.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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Between the U.S. states of California and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean lies an area known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is estimated to be three times the size of France and be comprised of 79 thousand tons of plastic in the form of 1.8 trillion pieces.

The Ocean Cleanup Foundation studied the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and produced this map of where the plastic becomes the most dense.

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Some of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch came from the 2011 tsunami that struck Japan.

An environmental engineer at the University of Georgia determined that an estimated 8 million tons of plastic is being added to the oceans each year.

Researchers estimate that cumulatively Laysan Albatrosses feed their chicks 5 tons of plastic each year. The Laysan Albatrosses actually are eating the plastic on purpose because they are a substrate for flying fish eggs. The plastic alone does not pose a problem for the albatrosses. However, accumulated toxins can pose a threat to the albatrosses.

Before their first flight, albatross chicks cough up plastic to clear their stomach. By the time one albatross chick studied by Cornell Lab named Kaloakulua was 4 months old she had plastic in her stomach. Here is a video of the regurgitated plastic and other indigestible items that were in Kaloakulua's stomach.

4 minute video published by LabofOrnithology on 3 June 2014

Planetary Changes

The estimated 600 thousand breeding pairs of Laysan Albatrosses are now facing the forces of nature. A changing climate and planet are threatening the Laysan Albatrosses.

Laysan Albatrosses nest on atolls scattered across the tropical Pacific. Here is a webcam snapshot from the Midway Atoll Wildlife Refuge, the largest Laysan Albatross colony in the world.

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In 2011 there were two large winter storms that hit the Midway Atoll. The storms washed away an estimated 10 thousand Laysan Albatross eggs.

A few weeks later the tsunami originating from Japan hit the Midway Atoll. The 5 foot tsunami flooded much of the Midway Atoll. The tsunami killed an estimated 212 thousand chicks and trapped birds in enormous drift piles.

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The United States Fish and Wildlife Service estimated another 42 thousand Laysan Albatrosses were killed on other Hawaiian atolls.

Hope for the Future

Albatrosses are moving to higher ground. Adapting to planetary changes albatrosses have been observed moving to higher ground for nesting.

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However, moving to higher ground brings new problems as nesting albatrosses move into proximity of where people live.

Yet with all the issues the Laysan Albatross population has had to deal with the historical resilience of the species gives researchers hope.

Sources and Resources

Laysan Albatrosses Survived The Feather Trade, Industrial Fishing, And Plastics. What’s Next?, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds, 19 December 2017

Facing Into the Wind: The Complicated Fate of the Laysan Albatross, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds, 26 September 2014

Laysan Albatross, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds

The Feather Trade, Smithsonian Institution

How Two Women Ended the Deadly Feather Trade, Smithsonian.com, March 2013

Plastic within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is ‘increasing exponentially,’ scientists find, Washington Post, 22 March 2018

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