A white-capped albatross with chick, above, and David Thompson removing a small tracking device, a light-based geolocation archival tag, from an albatross leg. Photographer Fiona Proffitt, NIWA.
Leigh Torres and David Thompson from NIWA are collaborating on a project which aims to find out how feeding white-capped albatrosses overlap with the seasonal squid fishery that operates near the Auckland Islands, where the birds breed, and how fisheries-related mortality is affecting the population.
The rapid miniaturisation of tracking technology is allowing the NIWA scientists to collect very detailed information from birds as they feed at sea, and is revealing interesting data about where the birds feed during their breeding season, and where they travel for the rest of the year.
