Stomach contents of seven Short-tailed Albatrosses caught as by-catch identified as squid and fish

William Walker (National Marine Mammal Laboratory, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, Seattle, Washington, USA) and colleagues have published on-line and open-access in the journal Marine Ornithology on the stomach contents of by-caught Short-Tailed Albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus.

Prey identified included squid and fish.  The paper concludes: “The results of our Short-tailed Albatross study … leads us to conclude that the Short-tailed Albatross probably … employs surface scavenging as a primary foraging strategy in the eastern Bering Sea and California Current System.”

Short-tailed Albatrosses at sea, photograph by Rob Suryan

Reference:

Walker, W.A., Fitzgerald, S.M. & Collins, P.W. 2015.  Stomach contents of seven Short-Tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus in the eastern North Pacific and Bering Sea.  Marine Ornithology 43: 169-172.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 October 2015