The black-footed albatross ranges across the North Pacific and takes squid and fish near the sea surface.
Adults are dark brown to black, with white patches below the eyes, at the base of the bill and at the base of the tail.
Seabirds that do not breed locally also use the waters off central California for feeding. Using cruise records collected from April through October in 2004–2013, researchers modeled foraging locations for six nonresident species. Black-footed Albatrosses were one of four species placed in the study’s generalist foraging guild.
Sea-surface temperature was an important variable in the models for that guild. Distance from the 200-metre depth contour also mattered in five of the six species models. Across the modeled birds, the continental shelf break near Cordell Bank emerged as a high-use area. The results connect seabird foraging locations with ocean conditions in waters away from breeding colonies.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
A NOAA report recorded 343 Black-footed Albatrosses caught incidentally in 2021 by hook-and-line fisheries in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska. Most albatross bycatch in those areas came from sablefish hook-and-line fisheries.