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Eye of the Albatross by Carl Safina. 2002. Henry Holt &
Co. 377p.
As effortlessly as ice skaters glide over ice, albatrosses soar through the air.
Without wing motion, they shoot through the air seeming to defy gravity. As
horses lock their legs allowing them to sleep standing, these birds can lock
both the shoulder and elbow bones holding the wings outstretched for flight.
They glide upward in solar powered winds; they soar downward due to gravity;
traveling in undulations for hundreds of miles. The albatrosses’ heart beats
more slowly in flight than when resting on the ocean surface. Grey-headed
Albatrosses possess the lowest cost of flight yet measured.
Carl Safina, a lover of ocean wildlife and winner of a prestigious MacArthur
grant for his exceptional writing, traveled to Tern Island in the Northwest
Hawaiian Islands to marvel at albatrosses. Tern Island, a coral atoll, boasts
thousands of nesting albatrosses, frigate birds, terns and a handful of
adventuresome scientists who study them.
Amelia, a Laysan Albatross named for aviator Amelia Earhardt, carries a
transmitter as she sails over the Pacific searching for food for herself and her
chick on Tern Island. Satellite tracking plots her astonishing travels over the
ocean. Urgent short trips to feed her chick alternate with long bountiful trips
to refuel herself and the chick. Amazingly, Amelia ranges north to the Bering
Sea commonly averaging 300 miles a day. She regurgitates partly digested squid,
fish eggs, etc to gorge the rapidly growing chick. In addition to healthy food
one parent regurgitated with difficulty a green plastic toothbrush that the
chick reflexively swallowed! Our trash, chemical pollution, long-line fish
hooks, and the consequences of global warming imperil albatross survival.
Like humans, albatrosses can live to old age. The oldest marked bird, a Royal
Albatross, survived over sixty years. Ornithologists suspect under favorable
conditions they might reach 100. After being in their presence Frank Gill, a
highly respected ornithologist, observed, “There was such wisdom in those
beautiful eyes that have seen so many years. In all my lifetime of experiences
with birds no moment was so moving.”
Human survival depends on the survival of majestic animals and plants. This
beautiful book teaches us that we need albatrosses. They enrich human experience
and the earth. Are we wise enough to act to insure their presence?
Written May 20, 2005
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