There's progress elsewhere, too. In Falklands waters, a single boat might kill as many as 140 birds in one day—until recently. Now long-liners and trawl netters must use bird-avoidance measures such as "streamer lines" and "bird curtains," which dangle from the boat and prevent birds from getting at baited hooks or colliding with net cables. Over the past few years, bird kills there dropped 99 percent for long-liners. In much of the vast circumpolar Southern Ocean, longline bird kills in areas managed under the 24-nation Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) declined from 6,589 in 1997 to just two in 2006.

These numbers don't account for many boats fishing illegally, or in areas not covered under CCAMLR. Albatrosses circumnavigating the world still interact with many boats unconcerned about birds or law. Some fishermen have even been known to catch albatrosses for food.

What the successes do show is what's now possible. Groups such as Southern Seabird Solutions, BirdLife International, and Brazil's Projeto Albatroz are also working hard with fishermen to close the gaps.

But fishermen aren't the only ones who can improve things. Seafood lovers' choices decide what fish will get caught and what fishing methods will find market favor. Consumers can help by being selective. For instance, because Patagonian toothfish ("Chilean sea bass") is heavily fished and some is caught illegally, most conservation groups recommend avoiding this fish, since it's hard to tell where it's coming from. But South Georgia's Chilean sea bass fishery is well managed, and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) now rates it as sustainable after managers there tackled the seabird problem. (In the U.S. you can find it at Whole Foods Market and elsewhere—just be sure you see the MSC logo on the package.)

Sean Martin, whose Honolulu company Pacific Ocean Producers operates and services fishing vessels, says, "If environmentalists publicize a problem, the whole industry gets a bad reputation. So if we develop a way of keeping birds off our bait and we're doing it profitably, other countries take note. We can go to a fisheries conference and say, 'Look folks, we're doing all this stuff and we're still making money, and keeping the environmentalists' heat off us all.' "

Albatrosses helped save Ernest Shackleton during his heroic lifeboat trek to South Georgia Island to summon rescue for his stranded crew. The first thing they did upon landing was to stew some fledglings. Albatrosses now need us to save them. Albatrosses can wander to the ends of the Earth. Each of us can help ensure they never go farther than that.