No ancient mariners here, but a French research group that has been using small beacons attached to albatrosses to learn about their mating, feeding and migrating habits has turned their work to another field: enforcing fishery limits.
Between November and March, 150 albatrosses, from the remote French southern Indian Ocean islands of Crozet, Kerguelen and Amsterdam, will use their tiny beacons to automatically detect radar signals put out by ships they meet at sea. Illegal fishers in the area often turn off their satellite-based location signals, but their low-level radar stays on.
The project, called Ocean Sentinel, was tested last year off South Africa. It's connected to the project's original goal of protecting albatrosses because one of the biggest threats to them is becoming entangled in long-line commercial fishing. Eighteen of 22 varieties of albatross are considered endangered.
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