Mo Ganji: Tristan Albatross | Tristan-Albatros | Diomedea dabbenena | No. 228/250 from work group 8/99

Mo Ganji turns toward the Tristan albatross — a large pelagic seabird spending most of its life over the open Southern Ocean — by letting the single line seek essence rather than range or endurance. The line condenses the being into a reduced coherence, setting aside wingspan, flight and distance so that presence can surface without scale. In Ganji’s understanding, the line does not belong to the albatross alone; it remains open, reminding us that every form is also a human concept provisionally placed upon a living continuum.

Diomedea dabbenena is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List. The species breeds almost exclusively on Gough Island in the South Atlantic, with a very small additional population on Inaccessible Island. Its global population is extremely limited, and breeding success has declined sharply in recent decades.

The principal threats include incidental capture in longline fisheries and, critically, predation of chicks by invasive house mice on Gough Island. These mice attack chicks far larger than themselves, causing extensive mortality. Because the Tristan albatross reproduces slowly and depends on a single primary breeding site, losses at the nesting stage have immediate population-wide consequences.

Ganji’s single line opens a space in which the albatross can be encountered beyond vastness or freedom. It allows the being to be perceived as a life bound to return and repetition, suggesting how even creatures of open oceans can be undone when the few places they must touch land are altered beyond what continuity can withstand.