Albatrocity                                           Back to Euan Dunn

Plying the wild oceans on extraordinary wings spanning three meters and more, the great albatrosses are magical creatures, masters of their own destiny, almost transcending the very idea of a bird.  But ‘magical’ is in danger of slipping into ‘mythical’ because 19 of the world’s 22 albatross species are threatened with extinction, largely due to commercial fishing.

Longline fishing fleets weave a cat’s cradle of baited fishing hooks around the world, a fatal attraction for albatrosses which, since time immemorial, have followed ships to snatch morsels in their wake.  The longline can be up to 80 miles long and carry thousands of baited hooks whose rightful targets are tuna, swordfish and toothfish. As the longline is paid out behind the vessel, the baited hooks float on the surface before they sink; albatrosses and other seabirds are naturally attracted to what they see as a free meal, swoop on the bait, get hooked, dragged under and drowned. Now we have reached the point where three decades of modern longline and trawl fishing threaten to snuff out the world’s albatrosses forever.

On South Georgia, for example, the wandering albatross colony is now only half what it was thirty years ago (we know this thanks to data meticulously collected by the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge), and is dwindling fast.  Up to half the chicks have longline hooks and other debris in their stomachs, mostly picked up through the fishheads regurgitated as food by their parents, so the cause of the decline is not in doubt.  Albatrosses are potentially long-lived (can survive 60 years or more), may not breed till they are at least ten years old, and most only lay one egg every two years, so with this slow generation turnover they simply cannot compensate for the massive losses inflicted on adults at sea by fishing.  Something drastic has to be done and we have little time to do it.

The good news is that simple technology and political will can readily solve this problem and reverse the fortunes of the albatross, even at this eleventh hour. Through its ’Save the Albatross’ campaign, BirdLife International (a global consortium of bird conservation organisations, of which the RSPB is the UK partner) is determined to prevent the final catastrophe.  We have all the tools we need to arrest albatross declines.  We coordinate a satellite-tagging database to map albatross movements and so discover critical areas (’hotspots’) of overlap with fisheries.  This in turn helps us to ratchet up the environmental governance of the oceans in regions where it really matters, with the ultimate aim of ensuring the adoption by fleets of the simple technical solutions known to prevent seabirds being killed by fishing gear. 

At the grass roots level, the RSPB has set up the Albatross Task Force, a team of experts working on deck with fishermen at global hotspots where albatrosses clash with fisheries.  Crucially, the Task Force raises awareness of the problem and instructs fishermen on the practical ways of preventing birds being caught.  This grass roots engagement is already making a difference in South Africa, Brazil and Chile and we are in the process of extending the programme to Argentina, Uruguay and Namibia.  We see the Albatross Task Force as vital for bringing about lasting change in the way fishermen operate, and thus central to our efforts to Save the Albatross.

All of this takes time and money, however, and we need all the help we can get.  The RSPB membership has been hugely supportive of fund-raising appeals.  In the southern oceans, the tourism industry whose lifeblood depends on the continuing spectacle of albatrosses and other marine wildlife, has also been a great wellspring of support for the campaign.  Many cruise passengers clearly feel their investment in the campaign is a way of helping their experience of a lifetime to still be there for those that follow.  We should all be committed to that - as someone said: ‘Man is defined not by what he creates but by what he chooses not to destroy’.

Euan Dunn