---
title: "Over 9300 km away.  A Black-browed Albatross from Macquarie Island is caught and released by a longliner off Chile"
---

# Over 9300 km away.  A Black-browed Albatross from Macquarie Island is caught and released by a longliner off Chile

A Black-browed Albatross *Thalassarche melanophris* metal (121-A9056) and colour (Red 352) banded as a chick on [Macquarie Island](https://www.acap.aq/index.php/news/latest-news/1347-breeding-sites-no-19-macquarie-island-a-recovering-sub-antarctic-world-heritage-site?lang=en) on 6 March 2009 was brought aboard alive an industrial longline vessel fishing for Broad-billed Swordfish *Xiphias gladius* near [Isla Choros](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Choros), Coquimbo Region, Chile on 1 July 2017 ([click here](https://www.ifop.cl/en/albatros-marcado-en-australia-en-el-2009-aparecio-en-chile/)).

 The time between banding and recovery was eight years, three months and 25 days.  According to the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme ([ABBBS](http://www.environment.gov.au/science/bird-and-bat-banding)) the bird had travelled a linear distance of 9350 km.

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/B/Black_browed/albatro_mapa_201806.jpg)

 Long-way from home: Macquarie Island to the coast of Chile for a banded Black-browed Albatross

 The bird was hooked in its left foot, assumed likely during line hauling as it was in good condition.  The vessel was not using a bird-scaring line at the time but the hooks were weighted (75 g).  After being measured it was released by Luis Díaz Báez, a Chilean Fisheries Development Institute (Instituto de Fomento Pesquero, [IFOP](https://www.ifop.cl/en/)) scientific observer aboard as part of the Highly Migratory Resource Monitoring Project directed by IFOP’s Dr. Patricia Zárate.  The bird was not photographed.

 Fewer than 50 pairs of Black-browed Albatrosses currently breed on Macquarie Island.  According to information supplied to Patricia Zárate from Australia this is the first record of a banded Macquarie bird from the south-eastern Pacific.

 Dr. Zárate informs ACAP that as a Party to the Agreement Chile is committed to maintaining a favourable conservation status for albatrosses and petrels that occur along its coast.

 Read a news item on the record [here](https://www.islandconservation.org/insight-seabird-flight-black-browed-albatross/).  The original IFOP report of the recapture can also be read in [Spanish](https://www.ifop.cl/albatros-marcado-en-australia-en-el-2009-aparecio-en-chile/).

 With thanks to Luis Adasme, Ilia Cari and Patricia Zárate for additional information.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 July 2018*