Quick Guide

Albatross


Albatrosses die as they grab bait from long-line fishing hooks. They can't breed fast enough to cope with this slaughter. But there are very simple and cheap ways to help the situation.

At a glance
Fishing fleets that target tuna and other large species set fishing lines stretching for up to 130km behind the boat, each carrying up to 10,000 baited hooks. This technique is known as long-line fishing. An estimated one billion hooks are set every year by long-line fisheries.

What is the threat?
Albatrosses dive down for an easy meal and get snagged on the hooks and drown. However there are simple and cheap solutions - such as ‘bird-scarers’ and weighted hooks that take the bait out of the birds’ reach.

What are charities doing to help?
The RSPB- the UK partner of BirdLife International - has established the Birdlife International Albatross Task Force. This group works with fishermen in by-catch hotspots around the world, many of which are congregated in the albatross-rich foraging grounds off South America and southern Africa. Task Force instructors work with fishermen to show them the simple techniques that can stop the accidental catch of albatrosses.

'An albatross features in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The metaphor having ‘an albatross around your neck’ comes from the punishment given in the poem to the mariner who killed the albatross. Sailors believed it to be bad luck to shoot or harm an albatross.'

What can I do?

  • Use your consumer power to ask fish retailers and restaurateurs if the fish they sell is from a certified fishery - especially if you dine out where tuna or Patagonian toothfish is on the menu.
  • If you don’t want to contribute to the decline in fish stocks generally, check with Fishonline which fish you can eat (eg line-caught mackerel from Cornwall and line-caught herring from the North Sea), and those you shouldn’t eat (eg Atlantic cod).
  • Support the work of the Albatross Task Force.


Did you know?

  • A great albatross chick (such as a wandering albatross) remains on the nest for nearly a year - a record among birds.
  • Albatrosses nest on islands that are without mammal predators. In recent years some colonies have had to face introduced species such as rats and feral cats that attack chicks, eggs and nesting adults.
  • Albatrosses can glide for hours without rest or even a flap of their wings. They also float on the water surface, though the position makes them vulnerable to aquatic predators.
  • The wandering albatross flies up to 10,000km per foraging trip to find food for its chick.
  • A grey-headed albatross from South Georgia was recorded circumnavigating the globe in 46 days.
  • A third of the world’s 1.7 million breeding pairs of albatross nest in UK overseas territories - effectively, they are on British soil. The main centres are the Falklands, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha.
  • Albatrosses have been flying over the oceans for 50 million years - 100 times longer than we have been walking the earth.

 

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