Taking seabirds under her wing is simply business-as-usual for one Dunedin tour boat operator.
Yesterday, a rehabilitated white-capped albatross was released during a Port to Port Cruises and Wildlife tour after its time at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital.
Tour owner and operator Rachel McGregor said while some passengers knew about the release, others were in for a surprise.
"The ones that [did not] know about it were just blown away," she said.
The white-capped albatross breeds on the Subantarctic Islands and is a smaller relative of the northern royal albatross, which breeds on Dunedin's Otago Peninsula and the Chatham Islands.
After the bird was released it took some time to reorientate itself, preening, fluffing and drinking seawater, which attracted attention from other seabirds, Ms McGregor said.
"We had quite a few other albatross that came by that were perhaps curious, we had four different types of albatross on that cruise."
Conservation work had always been part of her business.
She also rescued newly fledged albatrosses which became stranded in the water and estimated about five birds were rescued or released from her boat a year.
"If we can get people's interest up and have them either watching or being part of a rescue or a release, then they take that away ... it helps with the whole conservation aspect.
A Wildlife Hospital spokesperson said the adult bird had been recovered from St Clair last week.
"It had been storm-wrecked and was a little disorientated with some torn webbing on one foot," the spokesperson said.
"[It] was the perfect patient while under anesthetic for surgery to repair its webbing as best as possible."
The hospital has previously released sea birds from the Port to Port tour for the Department of Conservation, the spokesperson said.
"We also let them go on the headlands and that was the plan for today until Rachel ... confirmed a trip this morning.
"It's a really nice treat for our staff as we don't often get to do the release ourselves."
Ocean releases were the most natural way to release the birds as they could catch updrafts from the waves.
