Albatrosses are renowned for their long and distant flights. They feed on marine fish, mollusks, and crustaceans, and their ability to cover large distances aids in their search for food.
Sometimes albatrosses catch fish right from the surface of the water, and sometimes they have to dive. It was previously believed that these birds dive to shallow depths, at most 6–9 meters, which is not much for creatures that spend almost their entire lives at sea.
However, a recent article published in Current Biology reports that some species of albatrosses can dive twice as deep. Researchers who attached special sensors to black-browed albatrosses found that about half of them dive to depths greater than ten meters, with the maximum depth they can reach being nineteen meters; they can stay underwater for up to 52 seconds. (It was previously thought that black-browed albatrosses do not dive deeper than six meters and can only remain underwater for 15 seconds.)
As for other species of albatrosses, it is still unknown how their diving abilities compare; it is possible that their capabilities in this regard are also underestimated.
