Species: Phoebastria albatrus

A - <100 square km (less than about 40 square miles) - A - Nesting is restricted to two small island groups, roughly 1,500 kilometers apart: Torishima Island (Izu Islands) is approximately 580 kilometers south of Japan; and Minami-kojima (Senkaku Islands of the southwestern Ryukyu Islands) is about 270 kilometers northeast of Taiwan (NMFS 1989). On Midway Island, in the Hawaiian Islands, birds have been observed during the breeding season (Hasegawa and DeGange 1982) and for several years one bird attempted breeding with a Laysan albatross (Sanger 1978). Attempts have been made to encourage breeding there through decoys and recorded sounds, but this has not succeeded yet (H. Hasegawa, pers. comm., 2001). Historical range extended from the Bering Strait to California, and the species was common enough in both southern and northern latitudes to be found in the middens of coastal Native Americans (Friedman 1934, Yesner 1976).<br><br>When not on the nesting islands, short-tailed albatrosses are widespread in the temperate and subarctic North Pacific (Sanger 1978). Data from satellite-tracked individuals indicate that albatrosses range across much of the North Pacific from Torishima to the western and southern Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and southward to California, often more proximate to islands and mainland coasts than to mid-ocean areas (Suryan et al. 2007). Historically short-tailed albatrosses were common year-round off the western coast of North America (Roberson 1980), ranging southward to approximately 10 degrees North latitude (King 1981). Archeological evidence indicates their presence from California to Alaska (Friedman 1934, Yesner 1976), as well as throughout the entire North Pacific to the coast of China, including the Japan Sea, the Okhotsk Sea, the Bering Sea. Bering Sea records include the Komandorskie Islands, Diomede Islands, and Norton Sound (AOU 1957, Palmer 1962). These albatrosses also were commonly sighted in the Gulf of Alaska (Turner 1886, Nelson 1887) and were apparently common, if not abundant, in areas of high biological productivity such as along the west coast of North America, the Bering Sea, and offshore from the Aleutians (Hasegawa and DeGange 1982). <br><br>HISTORICAL BREEDING: Hasegawa (1979) identified 9 historical breeding locations in the western North Pacific, including 1) Torishima Island in the Izu Islands, 2) Mukojima in the Bonin Islands, 3) Nishinoshima in the Bonin Islands, 4) Kita-daitojima of the Daito group, 5) Minami-daitojima of the Daito group, 6) Okino-daitojima of the Daito group, 7) Senakaku Retto, 8) Agincourt Island north of Taiwan, and 9) Byosho. According to King (1981) there also may have been breeding on 1) Kobisho of the Senkaku group in the southern Ryukyu Islands, 2) Yomeshima and Kitanoshima in the Bonin Islands, 3) Pescadores between Taiwan and mainland China, and 4) Iwo Jima in the western Volcanic Islands (Kazan-Retto). <br><br>SUPPOSED ALASKA BREEDING: Several early naturalists believed that short-taileds bred in the islands of the Aleutian Archipelago because high numbers of birds were seen nearshore during the summer months. They were reported by Turner (1886) as highly abundant near Cape Newenham and abundant near the Pribilof Islands by Elliot (1898). Reports also described them near St. Lawrence Island, north to the Bering Strait and south to the Barren Islands in Lower Cook Inlet (Bean, Turner, and Nelson, in Hasegawa and DeGange 1982). There also was reference to breeding colonies by local Aleuts and a high frequency of occurrence in middens; however, fledgling bones were never recorded. Breeding was never verified in the Aleutians, and former breeding in Alaska is thought to be highly unlikely.<br><br>Coded range extent refers to the nesting range. Torishima is approximately 6 square kilomeers and Minami-kojima is 0.4 square kilometers.