More from Zoology

They don't yet know what the albatross are after during these deep dives, but this capability suggests that measures to mitigate by-catch in pelagic longline fisheries, a major cause of global decline in many albatross species, might need to be re-examined if albatross can chase baited hooks to much greater depths than previously thought.

In 2019, the team deployed biologgers on a population of black-browed albatrosses breeding on New Island in the Falklands. The biologgers record the GPS location, depth, and speed of tagged albatrosses, helping them to understand exactly how they behave at sea. They found that the albatrosses from New Island were often commuting to the South American coast, where they performed surprisingly deep diving. 50% of birds dived deeper than 10m and that dives could be up to 19m deep. Diving was restricted to daylight hours, and so albatross are probably relying on vision to pursue prey on these dives.

Using state-of-the-art miniature biologging devices, the researchers found that black-browed albatross from the Falkland Islands are in fact capable of diving much deeper that previously thought for any albatross species. They do this mainly by propelling themselves using a combination of wings and feet.

New research from the University of Oxford’s OxNav team, and published in the journal Current Biology, shows that black-browed albatross are able to dive much deeper than previously thought.

“We found that deep diving was restricted to daylight hours, and so one potential mitigation could be for pelagic long lines to be set at night when albatrosses might be less likely, or able, to chase baits and become caught” - Dr Ollie Padget

Zoology is a journal devoted to experimental and comparative animal science. It presents a common forum for all scientists who take an explicitly organism oriented and integrative approach to the study of animal form, function, development and evolution.