Researchers hope to determine why this is happening. They aim to identify the distribution and activities of birds at sea using satellite-tracking data. Researchers use sensitive satellites in space, miniature transmitters on birds, and rapid email communications to investigate the travels of these animals on the open ocean. The location of each bird is updated every 24 hours so scientists, students, and others throughout the world can plot the location of these amazing birds on maps. Last year the scientists and their student colleagues showed that albatrosses nesting on Tern Island can travel thousands of kilometers in a matter of days.
Information continues to come in from birds with transmitters from the Tern Island study.
Scientists want to know why the albatross populations are declining and what is causing these declines for many reasons. Seabirds are an important part of the marine ecology and their decline could be an indicator of problems that may affect other species. Scientists also wonder if some commercial fishing techniques are affecting the albatross when they are on their long distance feeding trips. In order to focus their study of certain factors that affect the albatross, researchers develop hypotheses , or specific explanations that might or might not to be true, that can be tested and as a result supported or disgarded. Disgarding a hypothesis can be as important as supporting one because it can give researchers new ideas and focus them on other possibilities.