With its three-and-a-half metre wingspan, the wandering albatross flies the equivalent of ten return journeys between the Earth and the Moon during its lifetime. These seabirds tend to gather where a tasty meal is likely – like off the bow of a fishing boat. But this puts them at risk of being accidentally caught and killed in nets and on hooks, especially on the high seas where monitoring is scarce. Bycatch kills hundreds of thousands of marine creatures every year, particularly on vessels that operate illegally in international waters. This is so difficult to police simply because of the vastness and remoteness of these regions.

Samantha Patrick had only intended to study how albatrosses interact with fishing vessels. But what she found could revolutionise how marine life is protected on the high seas. By attaching loggers to albatrosses that can detect the radars of fishing boats, Patrick and her colleagues uncovered the locations of numerous vessels that had been operating with these devices turned off – fishing undetected (and potentially illegally) on the high seas. In future illegal vessels could be monitored with seabirds wearing these devices, relaying any potential illegal activity to authorities in real time.