Anadarko is expected to start drilling about 60km off Otago Peninsula at the southern margin of the Canterbury Basin at a depth of about 1100m early next year.
Taiaroa Head, at the tip of Otago Peninsula, is home to the only mainland breeding site of northern albatrosses, which are closely monitored and protected by the Department of Conservation.
The opportunity to view the birds and their chicks attracts thousands of visitors to Dunedin each year.
PhD student Junichi Sugishita has been investigating the foraging activities of adult albatrosses from Taiaroa Head during the past two breeding seasons and their interaction with commercial fishing vessels.
Unfortunately, the GPS technology used to track the birds' movements failed this year. Of the 16 birds tagged, only 10 units were retrieved and only one yielded usable data, he said.
However, the previous season's tracking was successful and echoed that of a similar study done in 2005, showing the majority of albatross foraging was in a 60km radius off Taiaroa Head.
Mr Sugishita had 26,000 GPS fixes from six breeding albatrosses showing 46% of their foraging was within that radius.
''If something happens [due to the drilling], they will suffer,'' Mr Sugishita said.
Added to the risk was that adolescent albatrosses had been shown to spend a lot of time drifting at sea in that area, so if oil was spilled it could be devastating.
Even if there was not a spill, any disturbance to the seabed would start a chain effect which could affect the albatrosses' food sources, he said.
The foraging data had so far indicated that compared with other albatross species, the northern royal was not ''a keen boat-follower''. About half of the birds followed fished elsewhere when within 10km of a fishing vessel, he said.
Mr Sugishita hoped further tracking work this summer would increase his sample size to confirm his findings so far.
''If everything goes well, I should have up to 20 breeders tracked for up to six weeks.''
The automatic weighing work he had also been doing at Taiaroa Head worked well and early data suggested the feeding patterns of parent albatrosses were the same - there was no male to female division of labour, he said.
