Research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B reveals that albatrosses appear to learn to avoid fishing boats in order to improve survivability and lengthen their lifespan because when they try to feed on long lines baited with fish and squid, they become snagged on the hooks and are killed.
Researchers found that the younger albatrosses were often attracted to commercial fishing boats using the above-mentioned fishing method. A tempting source of food for a wandering, inexperienced albatross.
However, it is well known that fishing boats are the cause of the deaths of many albatrosses each year. They drown after they become snagged on hooks. The experts call these “bycatch” deaths. It is the main reason why albatross populations have declined according to conservationists.
The researchers found that young albatrosses frequently spent four hours or more lingering around fishing boats. However, albatrosses in their 30s and older spent less than half that amount of time in the same activity. Albatrosses can live into their 40s.
The researchers studied 403 wandering albatrosses and 30 Amsterdam albatrosses. They were tagged on the Crozet, Kerguelen and Amsterdam Islands situated in the western Indian Ocean. This allowed the researchers to follow their positions as they travelled.
And they were able to detect when they came close to a ship’s radar system and from that, I presume, they were able to assess how long they lingered around fishing boats.
The obvious conclusion is that the older albatrosses wised up to the dangers of scavenging food from fishing lines attached to fishing boats in the ocean. The young albatrosses hadn’t learned of the dangers.
I believe that this kind of learned survivability process ends up being embedded in the DNA of wild animals and is therefore handed down to offspring. I would expect of a very long period of time that less and less albatrosses feed from these dangerous fishing lines.
I don’t have any more information on the topic because I can’t find the study as I don’t think it is published online at the moment. The information comes from a short Times article of January 4, 2023.
