Addison

Exploring Albatross Movements - 2008

A project of Albatross Conservation Collaborative.

click map for full-size version Movements of a Black-footed Albatross equipped with a satellite-linked transmitter programmed to operate on a 60-second repetition rate for 6 hours (noon - 6 pm, California time) every day. Only good quality locations (classes 1, 2, 3, 0) are shown as connected filled circles, with the color indicating the timing of the location. Poor quality locations (classes A, B) are shown as black dots.

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Species: Black-footed Albatross
Life Stage: Sub-Adult (Plumage 2)
Gender: Unknown
Release Date: 2008-08-05 20:19:00
Release Location: Cordell Bank
Last Location: 2008-09-17 00:21:40

Background

We thought of this name as appropriate since one of our best friends is named Addison (with all of the above nicknames); while not pelagic like the albatross, he has given his life to wandering far from home, spending most of his adult life in Nepal. We have spent half or more of the year in Nepal for the last 23 years and have a fondness for people and beings that wander, people like Addison who left his south Georgia home at an early age and never looked back. He is an artist and a member of expat communities in Nepal, Thailand and Bali.

We have a vivid special memory of our very own albatross, who soared along side us for days in 1977, as we were sailing from Hawaii to Seattle on a lovely old 73' ocean racer, Windigo, designed by Olin Stephens. When we sailed out of the southeast tradewinds into the dead flat calm waters of the Pacific High, and became dead in the water ourselves, our albatross, Addison, could no longer soar and landed near us and became our floating companion until we finally started the motor and continued on. Before we started motoring, we swam with Ad in water over 5000 feet deep. This was a powerful experience.

Submitted by Charles Gay, Inverness and Kathmandu.

Addison stopped transmitting on September 17, 43 days after being tagged. Because the voltage data from the transmitter revealed that the singe AA battery had not been exhausted, this result suggests that the transmitter failed or detached prematurely.