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The Albatross About Our Neck: The State of our Oceans Revealed through the Family Diomedeidae
Published
Author(s)
Stacy Schuur
Abstract
Albatross (Family Diomedeidae) are long-lived seabirds that inhabit most of the world's oceans coming ashore only to breed. Most of the species are listed as at least vulnerable by the IUCN and have been tracked during breeding and non-breeding seasons. This review set against Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" examines the current threats to albatross including fisheries, plastic ingestion, oil pollution, climate change, and chemical contamination while demonstrating how albatross may serve as a biomonitor for the state of our oceans.
Schuur, S.
(2022),
The Albatross About Our Neck: The State of our Oceans Revealed through the Family Diomedeidae, NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8411, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=928942
(Accessed October 14, 2025)