My first encounter with the 'storm rider' - the short-tailed albatross, one of the rarest birds on Earth - was in 1982.1 was on a ferry bound for eastern Kyushu, south-west Japan, when I spotted an immature albatross in waters where I least expected to see one. The bird's dark plumage, its large, pink bill and, above all, its location left me flummoxed.Colleagues at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology said there was only one person who could help, so I consulted Dr Hiroshi Hasegawa at Toho University. I was thrilled when he confirmed my identification, especially since he estimated that fewer than250 short-tailed albatrosses then survived, breeding on a single remote island - Torishima.
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