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Wandering Albatross

Wandering Albatross

The best known Albatross is the Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans), which occurs in all parts of the Southern Oceans. It is the largest of all sea-birds. The length of the body is 1.2 m (4 ft), and the weight is from 6 to 11 kg (15 to 25 lb). Its wingspan can reach 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in). Like all of its kind, it is a powerful flier. In the days of sail it often accompanied a ship for days, not merely following it, but wheeling in wide circles around it without ever being observed to land on the water. It continued its flight, apparently untired, in tempestuous as well as moderate weather. It has even been said, incorrectly, to sleep on the wing, and Moore alludes to this fanciful "cloud-rocked slumbering" in his Fire Worshippers. It feeds on squid, small fish and on animal refuse that floats on the sea, eating to such excess at times that it is unable to fly and rests helplessly on the water. The color of the bird is white, the back being streaked transversely with black or brown bands, and the upperwings are dark. Sailors used to capture the bird for its long wing-bones, which they manufactured into tobacco-pipe stems. The albatross lays one egg: it is white, with a few spots, and is about 4 inches long. At breeding time the bird resorts to solitary island groups, like the Crozet Islands and the elevated Tristan da Cunha, where it has its nest, a natural hollow or a circle of earth roughly scraped together on the open ground. When nesting, it is obvious how far their adaptation to flying has gone. Their landings are often better described as semi-controlled crashes. The early explorers of the great Southern Sea cheered themselves with the companionship of the albatross in their dreary solitudes; and the evil fate of him who shot with his cross-bow the "bird of good omen" is familiar to readers of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The metaphor of "an albatross around his neck" also comes from the poem and indicates an unwanted burden causing anxiety or hindrance.

References

- Category:Albatrosses

Albatross

:This article is about the bird family. For other uses, see Albatross (disambiguation).
Diomedea
Thalassarche
Phoebastria
Phoebetria The albatrosses are seabirds in the family Diomedeidae, which is closely allied to the procellarids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific. They are absent from the North Atlantic although fossil remains show they once occurred there too. Albatrosses are amongst the largest of flying birds, and the great albatrosses from the genus Diomedea have the largest wingspans of any extant birds. Albatrosses are highly efficient in the air, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring to cover great distances with little exertion. They feed on squid, fish and krill by either scavenging, surface seizing or diving. Albatrosses are colonial, nesting for the most part on remote oceanic islands, often with several species nesting together. Breeding pairs form over several years and will remain together for life. A breeding season can take over a year from laying to fledging, with a single egg laid in each breeding season. Nineteen of the 21 species of albatrosses are threatened with extinction. Numbers of albatrosses have declined in the past due to harvesting for feathers, but today the albatrosses are threatened by introduced species such as rats and feral cats that attack eggs, chicks and nesting adults; by pollution; and by long-line fishing. Long-line fisheries pose the greatest threat, as feeding birds are attracted to the bait and become hooked on the lines and drown. Governments, conservation organisations and fishermen are all working towards reducing this by-catch.

Albatross biology

Distribution, evolution and taxonomy

The albatrosses comprise 21 species in 4 genera. The four genera are the great albatrosses (Diomedea), the mollymawks (Thalassarche), the North Pacific albatrosses (Phoebastria), and the sooty albatrosses or sooties (Phoebetria). Of the four genera, the North Pacific albatrosses are considered to be a sister taxon to the great albatrosses, while the sooty albatrosses are considered closer to the mollymawks. All albatrosses range in the southern hemisphere except for the four North Pacific albatrosses, of which three occur exclusively in the North Pacific, from Hawaii to Japan, California and Alaska; and one, the Waved Albatross, breeds on the equator in the Galapagos Islands and feeds off the coast of South America. The taxonomy of the albatross group has been a source of a great deal of debate. The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy places seabirds, birds of prey and many others in a greatly enlarged order Ciconiiformes, whereas the ornithological organisations in North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand retain the more traditional order Procellariiformes. Within the family, the assignment of genera has been debated for over a hundred years. Originally placed into a single genus, Diomedea, they were split into four different genera in 1852, then lumped back together and split again several times, acquiring 12 different genus names in total (though never more than 8 at one time) by 1965 (Diomedea, Phoebastria, Thalassarche, Phoebetria, Thalassageron, Diomedella, Nealbutrus, Rhothonia, Julietata, Galapagornis, Laysanornis, and Penthirenia). By 1965, in an attempt to bring some order back to the classification of albatrosses they were lumped into two genera, Phoebetria (the 'primitive' sooty albatrosses which most closely seemed to resemble the procellarids) and Diomedea (the rest). Though there was a case for the simplification of the family (particularly the nomenclature), the classification was pretty much the same as suggested by Elliott Coues in 1866, paid little attention to more recent studies and even ignored some of Coues's suggestions. More recent research by Gary Nunn of the American Museum of Natural History (1996) and other researchers around the world studied the mitochondrial DNA of all the 14 accepted species, finding that there were four, not two, monophyletic groups within the albatrosses. They proposed the resurrection of two of the old genus names, Phoebastria for the North Pacific albatrosses and Thalassarche for the mollymawks, with the great albatrosses retaining Diomedea and the sooty albatrosses staying in Phoebetria. Both the British Ornithologists' Union and the South African authorities split the albatrosses into four genera as Nunn suggested, and the change has been accepted by the majority of researchers as well. British Ornithologists' Union While there is some agreement on the number of genera, there is less agreement on the number of species. After his work on albatross genera, Nunn went on to propose 24 different species in 1998, compared to the 14 then accepted. These changes were not universally accepted; some of his splits have been rejected and for the most part 21 species is the number accepted by the IUCN and many others (though by no means not all—two authors have called for the number of species to be returned to 14). The molecular study of the evolution of the bird families by Sibley and Ahlquist has put the radiation of the Procellariiformes in the Oligocene period (35–30 million years ago), though the group has an older history, with a fossil attributed to the order, a seabird known as Tytthostonyx, being found in late Cretaceous rocks (70 mya). The molecular evidence suggests that the storm-petrels were the first to diverge from the ancestral stock, and the albatrosses next, with the procellarids and diving petrels. The earliest fossil albatross was found in South Carolina in rocks dating from the Upper Oligocene, though it is uncertain which genus it should be attributed to. The four genera are believed to have split more recently; a fossil albatross attributed to the North Pacific albatrosses, Phoebastria californica was found in mid Miocene rocks in California, showing the split between the great albatrosses and the North Pacific albatrosses occurred by 15 mya. Similar fossil finds in the southern hemisphere put the split between the sooties and mollymawks at 10 mya. The fossil record of the albatrosses in the northern hemisphere is more complete than that of the southern, and many fossil forms of albatross have been found in the North Atlantic, which today has no albatrosses. Remains of a colony of Short-tailed Albatrosses have been uncovered on the island of Bermuda, and the majority of fossil albatrosses from the North Atlantic have been of the genus Phoebastria (the North Pacific albatrosses), although one great albatross, Diomedea anglica, has been found in deposits in both North Carolina and England. It is not known for certain why the albatrosses became extinct in the North Atlantic, although rising sea levels due to an interglacial warming period are thought to have submerged the Short-tailed Albatross colony found in Bermuda .

Morphology and flight

interglacial The albatrosses are a group of large to very large birds with very long narrow wings, which are aerodynamically highly efficient. The wingspans of the largest great albatrosses (genus Diomedea) are the largest of any bird, exceeding 340 cm, although the other species' wingspans are considerably smaller. The bill is large, strong and sharp-edged, the upper mandible terminating in a large hook. This bill is composed of several horny plates, and along the sides are the two 'tubes', long nostrils that give the order its name. These tubes allow the albatrosses to have an acute sense of smell, an unusual ability for birds. Like other Procellariiformes they use this olfactory ability while foraging in order to locate potential food sources. The feet have no hind toe, and the three anterior toes are completely webbed. The legs are strong for Procellariiformes, in fact uniquely amongst the order in that they and the giant petrels are able to walk well on land. Albatrosses travel huge distances with two techniques used by many long-winged seabirds, dynamic soaring and slope soaring. Dynamic soaring enables them to minimise the effort needed by gliding across wave fronts gaining energy from the vertical wind gradient. Slope soaring is more straightforward, the albatross turns to the wind, gaining height, from where it can then glide back down to the sea. Albatross have high glide ratios, around 22:23, meaning that for every metre they drop they can travel forwards 22 metres. They are aided in soaring by a shoulder-lock, a sheet of tendon that locks the wing when fully extended, allowing the wing to be kept up and out without any muscle expenditure, a morphological adaptation they share with the giant petrels. tendon Albatrosses combine these soaring techniques with the use of predictable weather systems; albatrosses in the southern hemisphere flying north from their colonies will take a clockwise route and those flying south will fly anticlockwise. Albatrosses are so well adapted to this lifestyle that their heart rates while flying are close to their basal heart rate when resting. This efficiency is such that the most energetically demanding aspect of a foraging trip is not the distance covered, but the landings, takeoffs and hunting they undertake having found a food source. This efficient long distance travelling underlies the albatross's success as a long distance forager. The need for wind in order to glide is the reason albatrosses are for the most part confined to higher latitudes, since they are unsuited to sustained flapping flight, and are usually incapable of crossing the doldrums. Some southern species that have occasionally turned up as vagrants in the North Atlantic have essentially become exiled and can remain in the North Atlantic for decades. One of these exiles, a Black-browed Albatross, returned to gannet colonies in Scotland for many years in a lonely attempt to breed.

Diet

The albatross diet is dominated by cephalopods, fish and crustaceans, although they will also scavenge carrion and feed on other zooplankton. It should be noted that for most species a comprehensive understanding of diet is only known for the breeding season, when the albatrosses are on land and study is possible. The importance of each of these varies from species to species, and even from population to population, some concentrate on squid alone, others take more krill, or fish. Of the two albatross species found in Hawaii, one, the Black-footed Albatross takes mostly fish while the Laysan feeds on squid. The use of dataloggers at sea that record ingestion of water against time (providing a likely time of feeding) suggest that albatross predominantly feed during the day. Analysis of the squid beaks regurgitated by albatrosses has shown that many of the squid eaten are too large to have been caught alive, and include mid-water species likely to be beyond the reach of albatross, suggesting that, for some species (like the Wandering Albatross), scavenged squid may be an important part of the diet. The source of these dead squid is a matter of debate, some certainly comes from squid fisheries, but in nature it probably came from the die-off that occurs after squid spawning and the vomit of squid-eating whales (sperm whales, pilot whales and Southern Bottlenose Whales), or possibly some other source. The diet of other species, like the Black-browed Albatross or the Grey-headed Albatross, is rich with smaller species of squid that tend to sink after death, and scavenging is not assumed to play a large role in their diet. Until recently it was thought that albatross were predominantly surface feeders, swimming at the surface and snapping up squid and fish pushed to the surface by currents, other predators or death. The deployment of capillary depth recorders, which record the maximum dive depth undertaken by a bird (between attaching it to a bird and recovering it when it returns to land), has shown that while some species, like the Wandering Albatross, do not dive deeper than a metre, some species, like the Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, have a mean diving depth of almost 5m and can dive as deep as 12.5 m . In addition to surface feeding and diving they have now also been observed plunge diving from the air to snatch prey.

Breeding

Light-mantled Sooty Albatross Albatrosses are colonial, usually nesting on isolated islands; where colonies are on larger landmasses they are found on exposed headlands with good approaches from the sea in several directions, like the colony on the Otago Peninsula in Dunedin, New Zealand. Colonies vary from the very dense aggregations favoured by the mollymawks (Black-browed Albatross colonies on the Falkland Islands have densities of 70 nests per 100 m²) to the much looser groups and widely spaced individual nests favoured by the sooty albatrosses. All albatross colonies are on islands that historically were free of land mammals. Albatrosses are highly philopatric, meaning they will usually return to their natal colony to breed. This tendency to return is so strong that a study of Laysan Albatross showed that that average distance between hatching site and the site a bird established its own territory was 22 m. Laysan Albatross Like most seabirds, albatrosses are K-selected with regard to their life-history, meaning they live much longer than other birds, they delay breeding for longer, and invest more effort into fewer young. Albatrosses are very long lived, most species survive upwards of 60 years. The oldest recorded being a Northern Royal Albatross that was ringed as an adult and survived for another 62 years. Given that most albatross ringing projects are considerably younger that that is seems likely that more species will prove to live that long and even longer. Albatrosses reach sexual maturity slowly, after about 5 years, but even once they have reached maturity they will not begin to breed for another couple of years (even up to 10 years for some species). Young non-breeders will still attend a colony prior to beginning to breed, spending many years practicing the elaborate breeding rituals and "dances" that the family is famous for. Birds arriving back at the colony for the first time already have the stereotyped behaviours that compose albatross language, but can neither "read" that behaviour as exibited by other birds nor respond appropriately. After a period of trial and error learning, the young birds learn the syntax and perfect the dances. This language is mastered more rapidly if the younger birds are around older birds. The repertoire of behaviour involves synchronised performances of various actions such as preening, pointing, calling, bill clacking, staring, and combinations of such behaviours (like the sky-call). As they progress the number of birds they interact with drops until they choose one partner. They then continue to perfect an individual language that will eventually be unique to that one pair. Having established a pair bond that will last for life, however, most of that dance will never be used ever again. The 'divorce' of a pair is a rare occurrence, usually only happening after several years of breeding failure. The reason for the elaborate and painstaking rituals is to ensure that the correct partner has been chosen, and to perfect recognition of their partner, as egg laying and chick rearing is a huge investment, and even species that can complete an egg-laying cycle in under a year seldom lay eggs in consecutive years. The great albatrosses (like the Wandering Albatross take over a year to raise a chick from laying to fledging. Albatrosses lay a single egg, if the egg is lost to predators or accidentally broken then no further breeding attempts are made that year. All the southern albatrosses create large nests for their egg, whereas the three species in the north Pacific make more rudimentary nests. The Waved Albatross, on the other hand, makes no nest and will even move its egg around the pair's territory, as much as 50 m, sometimes causing it to lose the egg. For all albatrosses both parents incubate the egg, in stints that last between one day to three weeks. Incubation lasts around 70–80 days (longer for the larger albatrosses), the longest incubation period of any bird. It can be an energetically demanding process, with the adult losing 83 g of body weight a day. After hatching the chick is brooded and guarded for three weeks until it is large enough to defend and thermoregulate itself. During this period the chick is fed regularly with small meals by its parents when they relieve each other from duty. After the brooding period is over the chick is fed in regular intervals by both parents. The parents adopt alternative patterns of short and long foraging trips, providing meals that weigh around 12% of their body weight (around 600 g). The meals are composed of both fresh squid, fish and krill, as well as stomach oil, an energy-rich food that is lighter to carry than undigested prey items. This oil is created in a stomach organ known as a proventriculus from digested prey items by all tubenoses, and gives them their distinctive musty smell. Albatross chicks take a long time to fledge. In the case of the great albatrosses it can up to 280 days, even for the smaller albatrosses it takes anywhere between 170 and 140 days. Like many seabirds, albatross chicks will actually gain enough weight to be heavier than their parents, and prior to fledging they use these reserves to build up body condition (particularly growing all their flight feathers), usually fledging at the same weight as their parentparticluarly s. Albatross chicks fledge on their own, and receive no further help from their parents, who will actually return to the nest after fledging, unaware their chick has left. Studies of juveniles dispersing at sea have suggested an innate migration behaviour, a genetically coded navigation route, that helps young birds first at sea.

Albatrosses and humans

Etymology

The name albatross is derived from the Arabic al-câdous, (a pelican), which travelled to English via the Portuguese form Alcatraz. They were once commonly known as Goonie birds or Gooney birds, particularly those of the North Pacific. In the southern hemisphere the name mollymawk is still well established in some areas, which is a corrupted form of malle-mugge, an old Dutch name for the Northern Fulmar. The name Diomedea, assigned to the albatrosses by Linnaeus references the mythical metamorphosis of the companions of the Greek warrior Diomedes into birds.

Albatrosses and culture

Albatrosses have been described as the most legendary of all birds. They feature prominently in poetry such as the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It is a superstition among sailors that it is disastrous to shoot an albatross. Some travellers in the Southern Ocean have told accounts of particular albatrosses following them for days or weeks. More recently they have become part of popular culture, for example, in a Monty Python sketch.

Threats and conservation

In spite of often being accorded legendary status by people albatrosses have not escaped both indirect and direct pressure from humanity. Early encounters with albatrosses by Polynesians and Aleut Indians resulted in hunting and in some cases expiration from some islands (such as Easter Island). As Europeans began sailing the world they too began to hunt albatross, "fishing" for them from boats to serve at the table or blasting them for sport. This sport reached its peak on emigration lines bound for Australia, and only died down when ships became too fast to fish from, and regulations stopped the discharge of weapons for safety reasons. In the 19th century, albatross colonies, particularly those in the North Pacific, were harvested for the feather trade, leading to the near extinction of the Short-tailed Albatross. According to the IUCN Red List, 19 of the 21 albatross species are considered to have a conservation status as vulnerable or worse, partially due to the impact of commercial long-line fishing, as the albatrosses and other seabirds are attracted to the set bait, become hooked on the lines and drown. The scale of the problem is made worse by pirate fisheries, and an estimated 100,000 albatross are killed a year in this fashion. Two species (as recognised by the IUCN) are considered critically endangered, the Amsterdam Albatross and the Chatham Albatross. Another threat to albatrosses is introduced species, which can be predators, like rats or feral cats, directly attacking the albatross or its chicks and eggs; or they can have indirect effects, cattle overgrazed essential cover on Amsterdam Island; on other islands introduced plants reduce potential nesting habitat. Amsterdam Island Ingestion of floating plastic flotsam is another problem, one faced by many seabirds. The amount of plastic in the seas has increased dramatically since the first record in the 1960s, coming from waste discarded by ships, offshore dumping, litter on beaches and waste washed to sea by rivers. It is impossible to digest and takes up space in the stomach or gizzard that should be used for food, or can cause an obstruction that starves the bird directly. Studies of birds in the North Pacific have shown that ingestion of plastics results in declining body weight and body condition. This plastic is sometimes regurgitated and fed to chicks; a study of Laysan Albatross chicks on Midway Atoll showed large amounts of ingested plastic in naturally dead chicks compared to healthy chicks killed in accidents. While not the direct cause of death, this plastic caused physiological stress and caused the chick to feel full during feedings, reducing its food intake and reducing the chances of survival. Scientists and conservationists (most importantly BirdLife International and their partners, who have run a Save the Albatross campaign) are working with governments and fishermen to find solutions to the threats albatrosses face. Techniques such as setting long-line bait at night, dying the bait blue, setting the bait underwater, increasing the amount of weight on lines and using bird scarers can all reduce the by-catch in seabirds by fishing fleets. For example, a collaborative study between scientists and fishermen in New Zealand successfully tested a underwater setting device for long-liners which set the lines below the reach of vulnerable albatross species. The use of some of these techniques in the Patagonian Toothfish fishery in the Falkland Islands is thought to have reduced the number of Black-browed Albatross taken by the fleet in the last 10 years. Conservationists have also worked on the field of island restoration, removing introduced species that threaten native wildlife, which protects albatrosses from introduced predators. One important step towards protecting albatrosses and other seabird is the 2001 treaty the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, which came into force in 2004 and has been ratified by eight countries, Australia, Ecuador, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa, France, Peru and the United Kingdom. This treaty requires specific actions to be taken by these countries to reduce by-catch, pollution and remove introduced species from nesting islands. The treaty has also been signed but not ratified by another three countries, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

Species

Current thinking divides the albatrosses into four genera:
- North Pacific albatrosses (Phoebastria)
- Laysan Albatross P. immutabilis
- Black-footed Albatross P. nigripes
- Waved Albatross P. irrorata
- Short-tailed Albatross P. albatrus
- Great albatrosses (Diomedea)
- Southern Royal Albatross D. epomophora
- Northern Royal Albatross D. sanfordi
- Wandering Albatross D. exulans
- Antipodean Albatross D. antipodensis
- Tristan Albatross D. dabbenena
- Amsterdam Albatross D. amsterdamensis
- Mollymawks (Thalassarche)
- Yellow-nosed Albatross T. chlororhynchos
- Eastern Yellow-nosed Albatross T.carteri
- Buller's Albatross T. bulleri
- Shy Albatross T. cauta
- Chatham Albatross T. eremita
- Salvin's Albatross T. salvini
- Campbell Albatross T. impavida
- Grey-headed Albatross T. chrysostoma
- Black-browed Albatross T. melanophris
- Sooty albatrosses (Phoebetria)
- Dark-mantled Sooty Albatross P. fusca
- Light-mantled Sooty Albatross P. palpebrata.

References

General references

- Brooke, M. (2004). Albatrosses And Petrels Across The World: Procellariidae. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK ISBN 0-19-850125-0
- del Hoyo, Josep, Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (1992). Handbook of Birds of the World Vol 1. Barcelona:Lynx Edicions, ISBN 84-87334-10-5
- Tickell, W.L.N. (2000). Albatrosses Sussex:Pica press, ISBN 1-873403-94-1

Notes

# Alexander, W. B., Fleming C. A., Falla R. A., Kuroda N. H., Jouanin C., Rowan M. K., Murphy R. C., Serventy D. L., Salomonsen F., Ticknell W. L. N., Voous K. H., Warham J., Watson G. E., Winterbottom J. M., and Bourne W. R. P. 1965. "Correspondence: The families and genera of the petrels and their names." Ibis 107 401-5. # Nunn, G. B., Cooper, J., Jouventin, P., Robertson, C. J. R. and Robertson G. G. (1996) "Evolutionary relationships among extant albatrosses (Procellariiformes: Diomedeidae) established from complete cytochrome-b gene sequences". Auk 113 784-801. [http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v113n04/p0784-p0801.pdf] # Penhallurick, J. and Wink, M. (2004). "Analysis of the taxonomy and nomenclature of the Procellariformes based on complete nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene." Emu 104 125-147. # Olson, S.L., Hearty, P.J. (2003) "Probable extirpation of a breeding colony of Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus) on Bermuda by Pleistocene sea-level rise." Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 100 (22) 12825-12829. # Lequette, B., Verheyden, C., Jowentin, P. (1989) "Olfaction in Subantarctic seabirds: Its phylogenetic and ecological significance" The Condor 91 732-135. [http://scholar.google.com/url?sa=U&q=http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v091n03/p0732-p0735.pdf] # Pennycuick, C. J. (1982). "The flight of petrels and albatrosses (Procellariiformes), observed in South Georgia and its vicinity". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 300 75–106. # Weimerskirch H, Guionnet T, Martin J, Shaffer SA, Costa DP. (2000) "Fast and fuel efficient? Optimal use of wind by flying albatrosses." Proc Biol Sci 267 (1455) 1869-74. # Croxall, J.P. & Prince, P.A. (1994). "Dead or alive, night or day: how do albatrosses catch squid?" Antarctic Science 6 155–162. # Prince, P.A., Huin, N., Weimerskirch, H., (1994) "Diving depths of albatrosses" Antarctic Science 6 (3) 353-354. # Cobley, N.D., (1996) "An observation of live prey capture by a Black-browed Albatross Diomedea melanophrys " Marine Ornithology 24 45-46. [http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/24/24_10.pdf] # Fisher, H.I., (1976) "Some dynamics of a breeding colony of Laysan Albatrosses. Wilson Bulletin 88 121-142. # Carboneras, C. (1992) "Family Diomedeidae (Albatross)" in Handbook of Birds of the World Vol 1. Barcelona:Lynx Edicions, ISBN 84-87334-10-5 # Åkesson, S., & Weimerskirch, H., (2005) "Albatross Long-Distance Navigation: Comparing Adults And Juveniles" Journal of Navigation 58 365-373. #
- IUCN, 2004. [http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/search.php?freetext=Albatross&modifier=phrase&criteria=wholedb&taxa_species=1&redlistCategory%5B%5D=allex&redlistAssessyear%5B%5D=all&country%5B%5D=all&aquatic%5B%5D=all®ions%5B%5D=all&habitats%5B%5D=all&threats%5B%5D=all&Submit.x=104&Submit.y=16 Red List: Albatross Species]. Retrieved September 13, 2005. # Spear, L.B., Ainley, D.G. & Ribic, C.A. (1995). "Incidence of plastic in seabirds from the tropical Pacific, 1984–91: relation with distribution of species, sex, age, season, year and body weight." Marine Environmental Research 40 123–146. # Auman, H.J., Ludwig, J.P., Giesy, J.P., Colborn, T., (1997) "Plastic ingestion by Laysan Albatross chicks on Sand Island, Midway Atoll, in 1994 and 1995." in Albatross Biology and Conservation, (ed by G. Robinson and R. Gales). Surrey Beatty & Sons:Chipping Norton. Pp. 239-44 [http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Albatross-Plastic-Ingestion1997.htm] # Food and Agriculture Organisation (1999) "The incidental catch of seabirds by longline fisheries: worldwide review and technical guidelines for mitigation. FAO Fisheries Circular No.937. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. [http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/DOCREP/005/W9817E/W9817E00.HTM] # O'Toole, Decland & Molloy, Janice (2000) "Preliminary performance assessment of an underwater line setting device for pelagic longline fishing" New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 34 455-461. [http://www.rsnz.org/publish/nzjmfr/2000/36.pdf] # Reid, A.T., Sullivan, B.J., Pompert,J., Enticott, J.W., Black, A.D., (2004) "Seabird mortality associated with Patagonian Toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) longliners in Falkland Islands waters." Emu 104 (4) 317-325.

External links

- [http://www.birdonline.org/birds/albatross.htm Albatross resources from Bird Online] (North America)
- [http://www.itis.usda.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=174514 ITIS] (Follows the AOU classification.)
- [http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/fitzpatrick/docs/listintro.html Roberts' VII Bird Species List] (South Africa.)
- [http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/hanzab/HANZAB_spp_list.pdf HANZAB complete species list] (Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds.)
- [http://www.birdlife.net/action/campaigns/save_the_albatross/ Birdlife international Save the Albatross campaign]
- [http://www.acap.aq/ The Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP)]
- [http://www.montereybay.com/creagrus/albatrosses.html Albatross: Don Roberson's family page] Category:Procellariiformes Category:Albatrosses Category:Seabirds ja:アホウドリ亜科 (Sibley)

Crozet Islands

The Crozet Islands (French: Îles Crozet or officially Archipel Crozet) are a sub-antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean, part of the French Southern Territories.

Geography

There are 6 mostly volcanic islands (not counting tiny satellite islands and rocks nearby those main islands) forming an island arc. The following table gives an overview of the islands, from West to East: island arc The Crozet Islands are uninhabited, except for the research station Alfred Faure (Port Alfred) on the East side of Île de la Possession, which has been continuously manned since 1963. Further scientific stations have been La Grande Manchotière and La Petite Manchotière.

Subgroups

- Islands 1 through 4 are collectively known as L'Occidental (Western Group)
- Island 2 is actually a group of two major rocks 10 km South of Île aux Cochons
- Island 4 is actually a group of three islands, Grand Île (1.2 km²), Petite Île, Île Donjon, and nine pinnacle rocks with elevations between 15 and 122 meters
- Islands 5 and 6 are collectively known as L'Oriental (Eastern Group) The Eastern and Western Groups are 94,5 km apart (from Île des Pingouins to Île de la Possession).
Geology
Analysis of magnetic anomalies on the sea floor indicates that the Crozet Plateau, of which the islands form the highest points, formed some 50 million years ago. The islands are of volcanic origin, and basalt dating to at least 8.8 million years back has been found.
Climate
The Crozet Islands are not currently glaciated. Precipitation is, with over 2000 mm per year, very abundant. It rains on average 300 days a year, and winds exceeding 100 km/h occur on 100 days a year. The temperatures may rise to 18°C in summer and rarely go below 5°C even in winter.
History
The Crozet Islands were first discovered by the expedition of Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, a French explorer, who landed on January 24, 1772 on Île de la Possession, claiming the archipelago for France. He named the islands after his second-in-command Jules Crozet. (He had already named Marion Island after himself...) In the early 19th century, the islands were often visited by sealers, to the extent that the seals had been nearly exterminated by 1835. Subsequently, whaling was the main activity around the islands, especially by the whalers from Massachusetts. Shipwrecks occurred frequently at the Crozet Islands. The British sealer Princess of Wales sank in 1821, and the survivors spent two years on the islands. In 1887, the French Tamaris was wrecked and her crew stranded on Île des Cochons. They tied a note to the leg of a Giant Petrel, which was found seven months later in Fremantle. Alas, the crew was never recovered. Because shipwrecks around the islands were so common, the Royal Navy for some time sent a ship every few years there to look for stranded survivors. France originally administered the islands as a dependency of Madagascar, but they became part of the French Southern Territories in 1955. In 1961, a first research station was set up, but it wasn't until 1963 that the permanent station Albert Faure opened at Port Albert on Île de la Possession (both named after the first leader of the station). The station is staffed by 18 to 30 people (depending on the season) and does meteorological, biological, and geological research and maintains a seismograph.
Biology
The Crozet Islands are home to four species of penguins. Most abundant are the Macaroni Penguin, of which some 2 million pairs breed on the islands, and the King Penguin. The Eastern Rockhopper Penguin also can be found, and there is a small colony of Gentoo Penguins, too. Other animals living on the Crozet Islands include fur seals, Southern Elephant Seals, petrels, and albatross, including the Wandering Albatross. The Crozet Islands are a nature reserve since 1938. Introduction of foreign species (mice, rats, subsequently cats as a pest control) has caused severe damage to the original ecosystem. The pigs once introduced on Île des Cochon and the goats brought to Île de la Possession—both as a food resource—have been exterminated. An on-going concern is the overfishing of the Patagonian Toothfish and the monitoring of the Albatross population. The waters of the Crozet Islands are patrolled not only by the French but also by Greenpeace.
See also

- French overseas departments and territories
- Administrative divisions of France
- Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans
- Sub-antarctic islands
External links

- [http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/crozet_islands links to excellent maps of the islands]
- [http://www.discoverfrance.net/Colonies/Kerguelen.shtml Further information]
- [http://crozetvv.free.fr/ Further information] ja:クローゼー諸島 Category:Sub-antarctic islands Category:French Southern Territories

Tristan da Cunha

Tristan da Cunha is a group of remote islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and also the name of its main island. The main island Tristan da Cunha is located at . The other major islands of the group include Inaccessible Island and the Nightingale Islands with the main island Nightingale Island. Politically, Tristan da Cunha, together with the Gough Island, which is located 395 km away from the group, is a dependency of St. Helena (United Kingdom), from which it is 2,000 km distant. In 1961, a volcanic eruption on the island resulted in the bulk of the population (a few hundred people) being evacuated to Britain, though most have since returned. It is extremely difficult to access the island, due to both its remoteness (the island is one of the most isolated in the world) and the fact that the island is surrounded by cliffs over 600 metres (2000 feet) high. cliffs Residents of the island are known as Tristanians.

Geography

The name "Tristan da Cunha" is also used for the archipelago, which consists of the following islands (areas given in km²): Archipelago of Tristan da Cunha (Tristan da Cunha and its associated islands)
- the main island (Tristan da Cunha) and its surrounding (=lying close to the main island Tristan da Cunha) islands
- Tristan da Cunha, the relatively big main island () (98 km²)
- Inaccessible Island () (10 km²)
- Nightingale Islands (2 km²)
- Nightingale Island () (1.8 km²)
- Middle Island (0.1 km²)
- Stoltenhoff Island (0.1 km²)
- Gough Island () (Diego Alvarez) (91 km²) Inaccessible Island and the Nightingale Islands are located 35 km southwest of the main island, while Gough Island is located 395 km SSE. The main island is quite mountainous; the only flat area is the location of the capital, Edinburgh on the Northwestern coast (sometimes known as "Edinburgh-on-the-Seven-Seas"). The highest point, Queen Mary's Peak (2010 m), is covered by snow in winter. The other islands of the group are uninhabited, except for Gough Island Weather Station on the namesake island, which has been operated by South Africa since 1956 (since 1963 at its present location at Transvaal Bay on the Southeast coast), with a staff of 4. Tristan da Cunha is a nesting place of Wandering Albatrosses.

Population

There are around 300 inhabitants, all carrying one of seven surnames, though surnames are not used in practice. They speak English and are Anglicans (there are two parishes). There are some health problems because of endogamy, including asthma and glaucoma, largely due to the inevitable marriages among distantly related couples, for example marriages between second degree cousins, that comes with having such a small gene pool. Almost all the inhabitants work for the local government. The islands are largely self-sufficient. A ship arrives with supplies and news from the exterior. There is no airport, and only a small fishing port. There is no television, but TV sets are used to play videogames, and watch videotapes, though there is no video rental service. There is one newspaper, called the Tristan Times. There is one school, one hospital, one post office, one museum, one café, one pub, and one swimming pool. After the age of 16, those who wish to can continue studies in Britain. As of 2003, there are no permissions for establishment of foreigners. The archipelago's main source of foreign income is selling stamps to stamp collectors. For this reason, TA and TAA have an exceptional reservation under ISO 3166-1 on behalf of the UPU to represent Tristan da Cunha. Another source of income is the fishing of lobsters for export to Japan and the United States.

History of Tristan da Cunha

Main article: History of Tristan da Cunha The archipelago was discovered in 1506 by a Portuguese mariner, Tristão da Cunha, who named the main island after himself. Ilha de Tristão da Cunha was later anglicised to Tristan da Cunha Island. He was unable to land. The first survey of the archipelago was made by the French frigate L'Heure du Berger in 1767. Soundings were taken and a rough survey of the coastline was made. The presence of water at the large waterfall of Big Watron and in a lake on the north coast were noted, and the results of the survey were published by a Royal Navy hydrographer in 1781. The first permanent settler was Jonathan Lambert, from Salem, Massachusetts who arrived at the islands in 1810. He declared the islands his property and named them the Islands of Refreshment. His rule was short lived, as he died in a boating accident in 1812. However, the great wealth he earned selling elephant seal oil to passing ships is supposedly still hidden somewhere on Tristan da Cunha. In 1815 the British formally annexed the islands; this is reported to have primarily been a measure to ensure that the French would not be able to use the islands as a base for a rescue operation to free Napoleon Bonaparte from his prison on St Helena. To this day, Tristanians remain loyal to the British Crown, as citizens of a British Overseas Territory. In 2005 the island was given a UK post code (TDCU 1ZZ) to make it easier for the residents to order goods online.

External links

- [http://www.tristandc.com/ Tristan da Cunha Official Website]
- [http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/tristan_da_cunha/tristan_history.html History]
- [http://website.lineone.net/~sthelena/tristaninfo.htm Visiting information] – Put together by the former British administrator
- [http://www.btinternet.com/~sa_sa/tristan_da_cunha/tristan_longboat.html The Longboats of Tristan]
- [http://home.swipnet.se/~w-17282/tristan Photos]
- [http://www.travel-images.com/tristan-da-cunha.html Tristan da Cunha image gallery]
- [http://geowww.gcn.ou.edu/~bweaver/Ascension/tdc.htm General background], some photos, great bibliography
- [http://www.sthelena.se/miles/List13_Tristan.htm an even more complete bibliography]
- [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tristan-da-cunha The Tristan Yahoo! Group]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4129636.stm First postcode for remote UK isle] – BBC News Category:Ridge volcanoes Category:Hotspot volcanoes Category:Volcanoes of the Atlantic Ocean Category:Islands
- ja:トリスタン・ダ・クーニャ

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem written by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797-1798 and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads (1798). It is the longest major poem that Coleridge wrote.

Plot Summary

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner relates the supernatural events experienced by a mariner on a long sea voyage. The mariner stops a man who is on the way to a wedding ceremony, and begins to recite his story. The wedding guest's reaction turns from bemusement and impatience to fascination as the mariner's story progresses. The mariner's tale begins with his ship leaving harbour. Despite initial good fortune, the ship is driven off course by a storm and, driven south, eventually reaches Antarctica. An albatross, traditionally a good omen, appears and leads them out of the threatening land of ice; even as the albatross is praised by the ship's crew, however, it is shot by the mariner with a crossbow, for reasons unknown. This crime arouses the wrath of supernatural spirits who then pursue the ship; the south wind which had initially led them from the land of ice now sends the ship into uncharted waters, where it is becalmed. :Day after day, day after day, :We stuck, nor breath nor motion; :As idle as a painted ship :Upon a painted ocean. :Water, water, everywhere, :And all the boards did shrink; :Water, water, everywhere, :Nor any drop to drink. Tormented by thirst, the other members of the crew hang the albatross around the mariner's neck as a sign of his guilt. Eventually, in an eerie passage, the ship encounters a ghostly vessel. Onboard are DEATH (a skeleton) and the "Night-Mair" LIFE-IN-DEATH (a pale, deathly-fair woman), who are playing dice for the souls of the crew. With a roll of the dice, Death wins the lives of the crew members and Life-in-death the life of the mariner, a prize she considers more valuable. Her name is a clue as to the mariner's fate; he will endure a fate worse than death as punishment for his killing of the albatross. One by one all two hundred crew members die, but the Mariner lives on, seeing for seven days and nights the curse in the eyes of the crew's corpses, whose last expressions remain upon their faces. Eventually, the Mariner's curse is lifted when he sees sea creatures swimming in the water. Despite his cursing them as "slimy things" earlier in the poem, he suddenly sees their true beauty and blesses them; suddenly, as he manages to pray, the albatross falls off of his neck and his guilt is partially expiated. The bodies of the crew, possessed by good spirits, rise again and steer the ship back home, where it sinks in a whirlpool, leaving only the Mariner behind. In penance for his deed, the Mariner is forced to wander the earth and tell his story, and teach a lesson to those he meets: :He prayeth best, who loveth best :All things both great and small; :For the dear God who loveth us, :He made and loveth all. supernatural, as a tribute to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.]]

Background

The poem may have been inspired by James Cook's second voyage of exploration (1772-1775) of the south seas and the Pacific Ocean; Coleridge's tutor, William Wales, was astronomer on the Cook's flagship and had a strong relationship with Cook. On his second voyage Cook plunged repeatedly below the Antarctic circle to determine whether the fabled great southern continent existed. The idea of the mariner's shooting of the albatross came from Captain George Shelvocke's A Voyage round the World (1726): We all observed, that we had not the sight of one fish of any kind, since we were come to the Southward of the streights of le Mair, nor one sea-bird, except a disconsolate black Albitross, who accompanied us for several days (...), till Hattley, (my second Captain) observing,in one of his melancholy fits, that this bird was always hovering near us, imagin'd, from his colour, that it might be some ill omen. (...) He, after some fruitless attempts, at lenght, shot the Albitross, not doubting we shout have a fair wind after it. Wordsworth suggested the shooting of an albatross would plunge the ship in misery. When William Wordsworth and Coleridge planned the scheme for their joint collection Lyrical Ballads, it was agreed that Wordsworth would contribute poems describing common life and Coleridge would contribute poems on supernatural themes. The poem received mixed reviews from critics, and Coleridge was once told by the publisher that most of the book's sales were to sailors who thought it was a naval songbook. Coleridge made several modifications to the poem over the years. In the second edition of Lyrical Ballads (1800), he replaced many of the archaic words. In 1817, in the Sibylline Leaves, he added the marginal glosses.

Popular culture

- In Richard O'Brien's Shock Treatment, the character Betty Hapschatt recites the entire poem to Judge Oliver Wright who, along with an entire theater of people, has fallen asleep by its closing lines.
- The poem features prominently in the plot of Douglas Adams's novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. It is also a large influence upon Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
- "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is also the title of a song by Iron Maiden from their 1984 album Powerslave, a 14-minute heavy metal epic based on Coleridge's poem.
- The song "Good Morning Captain" by American underground rock band (see also "math-rock" and "post-rock") Slint from the album Spiderland is an adaptation of this poem.
- Baseball pitcher Diego Segui, who was pitching for the Seattle Mariners at the age of 40, was tagged by sportswriters as "The Ancient Mariner".
- In the BBC nautical adventure series Hornblower Captain Sir Edward Pellew quotes "As idle as a painted ship / Upon a painted ocean" when his own frigate is becalmed in the episode "The Frogs and the Lobsters".
- In The Wizard of Oz, the Wizard says to the Scarecrow, "Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain!"
- Cecil F. Alexander wrote a hymn published in 1848 containing the following refrain which echoes the sentiment of the Ancient Mariner: ::All things bright and beautiful, ::All creatures great and small, ::All things wise and wonderful: ::The Lord God made them all.
- A portion of the poem was recited by Wonder Woman as the body and longship of the Viking Prince were sent into the Sun, during the Justice League Unlimited episode "To Another Shore".
- The major themes of this epic poem are weaved throughout the film Serenity (2005) by Joss Whedon. Although never mentioned by name, the significance of the albatross is described by the main character Malcolm Reynolds.
- Since 1978, the U.S. Coast Guard has recognized the active duty member with the most accumulated time aboard its ships and an exemplary character as the "Ancient Mariner", as noted in [http://www.uscg.mil/ccs/cit/cim/directives/CIM/CIM_1650_25C.pdf the list of USCG Medals and Awards] (pdf).
- In the collectable/playable card game Magic: The Gathering, there is a card named and fashioned after the Will o' the Wisp described in the poem; the card even features flavor text with a pertinent excerpt from the poem: ::About, about in reel and rout, ::The death-fires danced at night; ::The water, like a witch's oils, ::Burnt green, and blue and white
- Another card from Magic: The Gathering called Scathe Zombies features another quote from the epic poem: ::They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, ::Nor spake nor moved their eyes; ::It had been strange even in a dream, ::To have seen those dead men rise.
- And yet another card from Magic: The Gathering called Wall of Ice features another quote: ::And through the drifts the snowy clifts ::Did send a dismal sheen: ::Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-- ::the ice was all between

External links

- [http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/%7Erbear/ballads.html#THE%20RIME Text of the 1798 version]
- [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Mariner.html Text of the 1817 version]
- [http://literalsystems.com/abooks/doku.php?id=audiobook:rime_of_the_ancient_mariner "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"] Creative Commons audiobook. Ancient Mariner, The Rime of

Studio Ironcat

Studio IronCat (früher I.C. Entertainment) ist ein kleiner Verlag in den USA welcher sich der Veröffentlichung von Comics und Manga gewidmet hat. Der Verlag ist vor allem für seinen Verkauf von MegaTokyo, einem prominentem Online-Comic, bekannt. Am 28. Januar 2005 stellte Studio IronCat seine Tätigkeiten ein und machte ein Statement bezüglich dieser Angelenheit in ihren Webseiten Foren.

Manga veröffentlicht in English von Studio Ironcat

- Futaba-kun Change
- Hanaukyo Maid Team
- Hyper Dolls
- Mantis Woman
- My Code Name Is Charmer
- New Vampire Miyu
- The Vampire Dahlia
- The Wanderer
- Vampire Princess Miyu

Weblinks

- [http://www.ironcat.com/ Offizelle Webseite (in Englisch)] Kategorie:Verlag Category:Comicverlag

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