An incubating Laysan Albatross gets unhooked

A longline hook with attached line was successfully removed from an incubating Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis on Kure Atoll, one of the USA's North-Western Hawaiian Islands on 18 December by a field team from the Hawaiian Department of Land and Natural Resources (DNLR).

The bird was checked later when it was still sitting on its egg.  According to the Kure Atoll Conservancy’s Facebook Page the “hook is from the longline industry and it is likely that the bird was hooked as the line was being hauled in.  The line was probably cut when the bird was pulled on deck, leaving 12" [300 mm] of heavy line and the huge hook in the throat of the bird. “

Hooked albatross: before and after, photographs from the Kure Atoll Conservancy

With thanks to Lindsay Young, ACAP North Pacific News Correspondent and the Kure Atoll Conservancy for information and photographs.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 January 2015