| It's a fairly common sight to see birds attempting to | | | | they can learn to fly, the parents are fully-fledged |
| make a meal out of fish, but when the fish in | | | | seabirds that hunt a long distance away from the |
| question turns on the bird then it's certainly a very | | | | land. In order to combat this problem, albatrosses can |
| strange sight to behold. However, in Hawaii during the | | | | cover over one thousand kilometres in a single trip to |
| summer months of June and July, the sight is a | | | | find food for their offspring. |
| regular occurrence, with the bird in question, the | | | | An albatross without offspring lives primarily at sea |
| mighty albatross and the fish in question, the | | | | and therefore the time that an albatross learns to fly |
| somewhat elusive tiger shark. | | | | signifies the young fledglings approach into adulthood. |
| Although the tiger shark may be considered sacred in | | | | Luckily the tiger shark is on hand to speed up |
| Hawaii, elsewhere in the world it is viewed with a | | | | proceedings. Every year as if on cue, the tiger sharks |
| certain fear. In the last decade, attacks on divers | | | | appear on the French Frigate Shoals of the Hawaiian |
| have increased in their abundance and therefore | | | | Islands at the time when the albatross chicks are |
| shark conservation has become increasingly important | | | | starting to take their first flight. The chicks take off |
| as a means of understanding the short and long-term | | | | from the shoreline and attempt to reach an adjacent |
| movement patterns of these graceful mammals. | | | | sandbank, separated from the main island by sea. |
| Travellers who book themselves on a shark | | | | The chicks that aren't yet adept at flight will have to |
| conservation holiday will find that they have to do a | | | | plonk themselves down in the water, where hungry |
| fair amount of diving on their travels and this is often | | | | tiger sharks wait in earnest. With a tiger shark |
| side-by-side the elusive creature. The thought of | | | | snapping away at their tail feathers many of the |
| swimming next to sharks may send shivers down | | | | albatross young quickly learn the art of flying; those |
| your spine, but in actual fact you have little to worry | | | | that don't quickly become dinner, with the tiger |
| about. Sharks very rarely attack humans and, on a | | | | sharks consuming around 10% of the albatross |
| shark conservation trip, you are more likely to see a | | | | population in the Hawaiian Islands. |
| shark feasting on turtles, fish, seals and even birds. | | | | With the Eastern Cape sadly devoid of albatrosses |
| Birds might seem an unlikely food source, particularly | | | | the only way that you are guaranteed to get up |
| as they never venture into the sharks lair under the | | | | close and personal to a tiger shark is on a shark |
| sea. However, tiger sharks have no qualms about | | | | conservation holiday. Getting up close and personal to |
| coming up to the surface in order to find their prey. | | | | a fully grown albatross is slightly harder as the birds |
| During the summer season in Hawaii, the sharks are | | | | can spend months flying at a time without touching |
| often seen precariously close to the shoreline in the | | | | the ocean. But with the memory of hundreds of |
| hunt for albatross chicks in the shallow waters | | | | hungry tiger sharks snapping away at their ankles, |
| learning to fly. For the adult albatross this is a strange | | | | who can blame them? |
| time as, although the chicks have to be on land until | | | | |