Regarding Laysan Albatross appearing in Puget Sound (Tacoma & Gig Harbor), it
is not hard to imagine that both of these birds were ship assisted and the
fact that there were two nearly simultaneous separate incidents, the
occurrence can probably just be dismissed as coincidence. The first which
later died in rehab clearly came by barge as Dennis Paulson mentioned. It is
easy for me to imagine the second bird as well having perhaps arrived onboard
a large commercial vessel at the Port of Tacoma.

The Laysan Albatross is a fairly common and widespread species all across the
North Pacific from southern Alaska to central California during the winter and
early spring. The large number of powerful storms marching across the North
Pacific is little if any more exceptional this year than most any other. Many
seabirds including the mighty master of effortless flight and made for the
winds and seas is not at all immune to making 'mistakes' which I've observed
even in relative normal conditions with winds of 20 knots or less. These
'mistakes' can increase in stormier conditions of course.

Especially when the vessel is proceeding into the wind, albatross and other
ship-following seabirds often ride alongside quite close on deflected air
currents from the vessels superstructure. Often these birds simply hang there
at eye level sometimes at an arms length seemingly suspended and on motionless
wings riding along at the same speed as the vessel sometimes minutes at a
time. They often circle and circle the vessel for hours, even days at a time,
and not infrequently cut across mid-ship at which time a wing may clip the
rigging or grounding cables running between the foremast and the main mast.
If the bird is unable to recover in time, it can come ungracefully crashing
down onto the deck; in a worst case breaking a wing in the accident.

I have observed several such incidents involving both Laysan (most frequent)
and Black-footed Albatross in the North Pacific and several more involving
Wandering (twice), Royal (once), Black-browed (several), and Light-mantled
Sooty Albatross (once) as well as several other species during many many hours
over many years of sailing the southern oceans on relatively 'small' Russian
and Japanese whaling and research vessels. I even experienced the close
encounter with a Wandering Albatross while standing on the bow and it's wing
tip knocked my hat off when it sailed by a bit close and worse was a Snow
Petrel which once plowed head-on right into my face!

So it is not hard to imagine a couple Laysan Albatross becoming moribund on
the decks of the many large commercial vessels regularly plying the North
Pacific shipping lanes at high speeds (25 to 30+ knots) unimpeded by all kinds
of weather, winds, and sea conditions and winding up in either Seattle or
Tacoma or any other major seaport. I once did an experimental cruise onboard
one of the mega-huge fully loaded 'Sea-Land' container vessels on it's regular
route between the Port of Tacoma and Yokohama, Japan one October back in the
mid-1980's to examine it's feasibility as a marine mammal observation
platform. Such a vessel is way to large and moves at such high speed, 26
knots then + add on a real head wind of 50 knots or even just 5 knots and
being outside and on deck in an unprotected location is risky if not just
plain impossible business! I never observed any seabirds onboard on that
particular cruise, but once the seas and weather permitted, I was able to make
my way to the focsle (bow) -- a very long trip btw on the hoof from the bridge
-- 15 minutes walking and risky too even in good weather -- the crew make the
trip by bicycle(!) or golf cart(!) even. The deck of the focsle on a fully
loaded container ship is a calm oasis where there is no other outside weather
deck suitable or similar on such a vessel. My experience up there turned up
an amazing hodge-podge of 'vagrant' mostly Asian passerines (off Attu -
Japan). Had an albatross clipped the foremast, it could just have easily
dropped onto the deck of the focsle and been trapped there as there is no way
such a bird could ever get airborne again since it would be hemmed in by the
large forward bow structure (splash guard) and the stack of containers behind,
and the fact that it would be at the bottom of some steps that would further
prohibit the bird from scrambling to an open area where it could launch itself
and escape to the open sea. Also, I can easily envision something as large as
an albatross crashing into the field of containers and becoming trapped or
lodged between containers in such a way that it couldn't extract itself until
the containers are off loaded after the vessel was tied up in port. I suspect
that scenarios such as these may happen far more often than any of us realize.

Such a similar event may have in fact precipitated the Laysan Albatross
ultimately found in a bush(!) onshore in Gig Harbor which is not far from the
Port of Tacoma. Such a bird could have been weakened, injured, or just plain
confused through it's encounter. Personally, I don't think that suddenly
riding ferries across Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca as Dennis
jokingly suggested will likely turn up 'inside' Laysan Albatross at any
greater rate than the yearly average over the past hundred years. What's
that? ...nearly zero except for the one(s) maybe fleeing the ports of Seattle
and Tacoma for the open sea '-)

Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
(Seattle/Bellevue, WA USA)