Anyone interested in seabirds can use this laminated, 3-hole-punched, quick-reference card to identify the Laysan albatross, black-footed albatross, and the rare short-tailed albatross in the North Pacific. The card was designed for commercial fishermen, who are required by federal regulation to avoid killing short-tailed albatrosses. Albatrosses and other birds can get hooked when they grab bait on fishing lines.
The card features colour photographs – some by Hiroshi Hasegawa, world expert on albatrosses – which show the birds flying and floating, and in their juvenile, immature, and adult plumages. To help distinguish the birds, drawings of the bills are included as well as other information. The author, a North Pacific commercial fisheries observer, developed the card in cooperation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The project was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, North Pacific Longline Association, Alaska and Washington Sea Grant programs, International Pacific Halibut Commission, and the National Audubon Society.