From the heaving, rolling deck of a fishing boat, I looked out at dark cyan waves and thick rain clouds.

Surrounding the vessel in all directions were flapping streaks of black, white, and gray.

These were birds, of course, of various sizes. Some pigeon-sized,

others with wingspans wider than any eagle. This was in the chilly waters off New Zealand's

East Coast. I was on my first pelagic birding trip, and I was in heaven. Thank you anti-motion sickness medication.

Without that, I would have been in hell instead,

curled up in the fetal position on the deck,

begging for someone to please kill me and toss me overboard

to feed all those hungry birds.

The bird species, swooping and swimming hungrily around the boat included

Hutton's and Short-Tailed Shearwaters, Cape Petrels, Westland Petrels, Northern Giant Petrels,

Fairy Prions, and three species of Albatross, including the wandering albatross. For decades, I had

wanted to see a wandering albatross. At up to 11 feet or 3.35 meters from wingtip to wingtip,

no other bird has such a large wingspan. And there it was, a wandering albatross right in front of me.

Birds like these are perfectly at home in the open ocean. There's is a world that, for landlubbers

like most of us humans, can seem at once beautiful, mysterious, desolate, even alien.

But we live on a planet that's mostly ocean, right?

Over 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by marine habitats.

So I guess it's not surprising that birds, resourceful, adaptable little buggers that they are,

have taken advantage of the

opportunities offered by the sea. Every day of every year, the world's oceans are criss-crossed

by millions of birds as they fly or swim around, in search of food, safe places to rest,

...