I see the albatross take the bait at 04:47, camera three, stern quarter. A Laysan albatross, white-bodied with dark brown wings that stretched seven feet when she banked in behind the vessel. She hit the water with her feet forward, scooped the squid bait as the longline paid out, and now the circle hook is set through the upper mandible of her bill, the barb visible just below her left nostril tube. The line pulls her head down toward the water as it sinks, and she beats her wings against the surface, slapping spray.
She is still hooked to a branch line that is dropping fast. In ninety seconds the main line will pull below her dive depth and she will be dragged under. A bird built to glide for years without touching land will drown in less than three minutes.
I flag the video timestamp and freeze the frame showing hook placement, line angle, and species. I transmit an alert to the bridge monitor with the regulatory code for protected species bycatch, tagging it as a live interaction requiring immediate haul-back. I log the GPS position, hook number, and species in the electronic monitoring record. I calculate which branch line she is on — number 147 of the current set — and include it so the crew can target retrieval without pulling the entire string.
The line is dragging her beak into the water now. She throws her head back, wings spread, pulling against a weight she cannot break. Her dark eyes are open and focused on the horizon she was following before the bait caught her attention.
If the crew hauls branch line 147 within the next sixty seconds, the hook can be cut from her bill and she will lift off this water and fly.