What are the main threats to albatross?
Bycatch poses the biggest threat to almost all albatross species. They dive for the fish bait used on longline fishing before it sinks into the sea, get entangled on the hook and drown. Albatrosses breed on remote islands forming large colonies. However, such spaces are reducing due to the impact of invasive species. Rats prey on the eggs in albatross nests and rabbits can quickly destroy a nesting area with their burrows. Read more about the impact of invasive species on Macquarie Island, a World Heritage Site in the Southern Ocean. Albatross chicks choke on our waste. Every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks on the Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean die because they choke or are poisoned by plastics and other human waste that their parents mistakenly feed to them. The work of photographer Chris Jordan chillingly illustrates the results of this plastic diet on albatross chicks (images may be disturbing).
