Apparently there is not much food for the albatrosses out here. I have never experienced a bird trying to eat our fishing lure before. This guy was hungry, and got hooked. Fortunately he was pretty calm about it, and I was able to pull him in and grab him by the beak and unhook him without any fuss. The hook was only sitting in the bone of the hooked part of his upper beak, so he wasn’t even hurt.
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3 responses to “Albatross!”
Albatrosses drowning when getting hooked while trying to steal the bait from long-line fishing lines is a major threat to many of the Albatross species, so this would not appear to be all that uncommon. They make an interesting parallel with the journeyman’s outstanding ability to cruise effortlessly long distances with minimal energy consumption, though.
Just finnished reading Ellen MacArthurs book full circle. She tells of the fateful trip to South Georgia in 2005 studying albatrosses which was one of the things that caused her to decide to leave competitive sailing and focus on the transition to circular economy instead. Read it! http://www.adlibris.com/se/product.aspx?isbn=0718148630
Talking about “long distances with minimal energy consumption”… I can see that you are heading north at 7-8 knots with approx 3-4 m/s wind on a nice open reach :-)
What are you plans?