Page 48 - 2008 NZ Subantarctic Islands

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
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