Page 25 - 2008 NZ SUB ANTARCTIC ISLANDS - SMARTPHONE

While we were on the Zodiacs we had a sea-based peak experience—a pod of about 6-10
dolphins around the boats in hunting behavior. It was really quite astonishing to watch the
dolphins perform what we always thought of as “circus” tricks in a Sea World setting—leaping
completely out of the water, turning flips both backwards and forwards in mid-air, swimming at
great speeds in circles just under the water surface, rising out of the water vertically practically
standing on their tails! It was awesome. The noise they made falling back into the water and
hitting the surface smartly with their tails must have aided them in herding the school of fish they
were hunting. This group technique is designed to get the school to form a tight ball for easy
slicing by the dolphins as they feed on the fish. So we learned that the tricks we see these sea
mammals perform for us in captivity are based on their natural behaviors. Again, we thank New
Zealand and DOC for keeping these territorial waters under their protection! Such a wonderfully
fun time it was to observe these intelligent and acrobatic creatures.

Now a word about albatross conservation: it seems appropriate since Campbell Island is one of
only two places left in the world where you are allowed to walk among these birds on their nests.
(The other place is much further down towards Antarctica near South Georgia Island.) About
8,000 pairs of the Southern Royal Albatross nest on Campbell, the biggest gathering of this
species anywhere. Male and female parents spend 5-6 days at a time incubating the eggs, trading
off so the sitting bird can go off to sea for a meal because it does not eat during its 6-day stint.
Their parental duties take 240 days from egg to fledging the chick. With such a huge and lengthy
effort required to raise one chick, it is clear why these birds usually breed just once in two years.
That aspect of their life cycle is one of the major challenges in their conservation; they do not
reproduce themselves often enough to keep up with the loss of adult birds chiefly because of long
line fishing and drift net fishing. These types of fishing involve very long lines with shiny bits of
aluminum or other material attached to the lines at varying spaces. The shiny material attracts the
albatross (many species of them, not just the Royals) and they became ensnared in the lines and
drown. In addition to their large size, albatross exhibit other superlatives: they are the largest
flying birds with the longest wingspans, they live the longest (up to 50 years), they have the
longest incubation period of any birds, and they fly the longest distances of any birds (the
equivalent of 18 trips back and forth to the moon in their lifetimes). It is not unusual for an
albatross to fly 600 miles in a single day. Most amazingly, these birds make this prodigious trip
using fewer wing flaps than a sparrow uses when flying across a street! And don’t forget, when
fledged a young bird does not return to land for 6-7 years; they are on the wing that entire time
except when they settle for a rest on the sea surface. They sleep while they fly: one half of the
brain sleeps while the other stays awake. Albatross return to their birthplace to conduct their own
contributions to the survival of their species.

They meet one another while around 5 or 6 and begin to perform the “gamming” or mating rituals
that will finally help them choose a mate which will be their partner for life. But actually
breeding usually doesn’t start until they are closer to 10 years old. Another problem with
maintaining a stable population.

So what is DOC doing to help these magnificent birds? The care that is taken in keeping
Campbell Island predator free has already been discussed, as has the policy of allowing very few
visitations to the island. There are 24 species of albatross (there is some discussion among
taxonomists about the exact number, but this is close enough for our purposes) and 14 of them
breed in New Zealand. Astoundingly, 40% of all Albatross live in the areas we visited on this
trip. New Zealand, through the work of DOC, is working to prevent long line and drift net
fishing in its territorial waters. New Zealand was a signatory to a treaty to end drift-netting as
long ago as 1989. A levy is collected from all legal fishing operations in NZ territorial waters to
help fund research to protect seabirds of all kinds. Part of DOC research involves satellite

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