In the Antarctic, a scientist recruits albatrosses to pinpoint illegal fishing boats

[Judi Lynn]

February 2, 2021 by Aisling Irwin

Albatross expert Dr Henri Weimerskirch, of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), turned his favourite seabirds into spies two years ago by fixing them up with loggers that could detect the radar of illegal fishing vessels. The information from this project, known as OCEAN SENTINEL, has helped governments select which parts of the ocean to patrol. But Dr Weimerskirch wanted to recruit another, possibly better, species to stealth operations. In late 2020, he returned to the remote Kerguelen Islands, in the southern Indian Ocean, to see if they would cooperate. He told Horizon about his expedition.

The work two years ago went very well but at that time we were using wandering albatrosses. Black-browed albatrosses are more attracted by fishing vessels so I thought they might give us more information.



Dr Weimerskirch and his team had to make new loggers to accommodate the smaller size of black-browed albatrosses. Image credit – Henri Weimerskirch/CNRS

In November last year I flew, with two other field workers, from France to the Indian Ocean island of Réunion, then spent 15 days on a supply ship to the Kerguelen Islands (an archipelago 3,400 km to the south – see map below). The capital, in the northeast, is Port-aux-Français, which has a scientific base of about 80 people. The colony of black-browed albatrosses is 30-40 km away, so we flew there by helicopter.

It’s a sub-Antarctic island so there are no trees and, above 200-300 metres, no vegetation, only rock. The explorer Captain James Cook called it Desolation Island. There’s a lot of rain and wind and some snow, although it wasn’t very cold. Temperatures ranged from zero to about six degrees.

More:
https://horizon.scienceblog.com/1609/in-the-antarctic-a-scientist-recruits-albatrosses-to-pinpoint-illegal-fishing-boats/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogrssfeed+%28ScienceBlog.com%29

[mopinko]

1. went to hawaii 8 yrs ago and saw the laysan albatrosses.

rly magnificent creatures. the ex got some great pics of them. wish i had them to post.

we had to walk a couple hours to get to where they were. i still sorta cant believe i survived the trek. they watched us the whole time, and when we left we were escorted off by a big dude. followed us in the air til we left the area.