taking the PlUnge | 39of comparable flight efficiency. Six months after quitting Crozet, the
birds were concentrated in sub tropical waters just south of Australia
and eastward into the Tasman Sea, with the young males possibly going
further east than the females.^14 The sub tropical waters used at this phase
of life were distinctly north of the zones used by older Wanderers. Re-
markably, the estimated average distance covered during the first year
at sea was 184,000 km, equivalent to four times round the world.
Wandering Albatrosses are not the only species where the young
birds have different target destinations to their elders. A similar pattern
has been discovered in Black- footed Albatrosses tracked from Midway
Atoll.^15 Situated at the north- western end of the Hawaiian chain and,
appropriately, about half way across the Pacific, the island saw a key
battle between Japanese and US forces in 1942. Today around one- third
of the world population of this albatross species breeds on the atoll.
After a few days bobbing on calm waters within the atoll, and risking
Tiger Shark attack, the fledglings head northwards for some 800 km. At
this point the birds are nearing the more productive waters associated
with the so- called North Pacific Transition Zone some 10 degrees north
of Midway Atoll. But, perhaps unexpectedly, the young actually linger
south of this zone, remaining within the gyre circulating clockwise
around the middle latitudes of the North Pacific. Occupying the centre
of this clockwise gyre lies the so- called Great Pacific Garbage Patch. At
least the size of Texas, the vortex traps plastic and all manner of gar-
bage. But why should the young albatrosses elect to remain here rather
than join the adults further north in the productive waters off northern
Japan and off the Aleutians? Perhaps it is the very presence of those more
experienced and competitive adults that is the problem. They might be
simply better at catching food than the juveniles, and oust the young
from the best patches. Perhaps the fact that, unlike the adults which
moult after breeding, the young do not have to face the extra energetic
costs of moulting, means they can balance their daily energy budgets in
less productive waters. The situation mirrors that of the Crozet wander-
ers where, in the months after breeding, the young are spatially sepa-
rated from the adults.
The north/south split seen in the wanderers, young to the north,
adults further south, has also been discovered in another species of the