HRH Prince Charles: Albatross needs us - now

HRH Prince Charles

Opinion

Like many other one-time mariners I have a very special affection for the albatross.

Only the other day there was further evidence of the mystery and majesty of these birds when a satellite-tagging research project proved what we have long suspected - that some quite literally circumnavigate the globe and the fastest does it in just 46 days.

I find it hard - no, impossible - to accept that these birds might one day be lost for ever. Yet that does now seem to be a real possibility unless we, and others around the world, can make a sufficient fuss to prevent it.

Nineteen of the 21 species of albatross are now under global threat of extinction, with some species now numbering under 100 individuals.

The most potent force driving the members of the albatross family to extinction is longline fishing, which is estimated to kill 100,000 albatrosses every year. And even here in New Zealand, the albatross capital of the world where 14 of the 21 species breed, it is estimated that around 10,000 albatrosses and petrels are killed in your waters each year.

What makes this situation so particularly galling is that these deaths are completely avoidable.

The technology is simple, inexpensive and very effective. What is required are bird scaring lines which keep birds away from hooks during line setting; line weighting to sink hooks more quickly making them inaccessible to birds; fishing at night when most seabirds are less active; and ensuring that offal is not discharged while lines are fed out.

Careful monitoring has proved beyond any doubt that using the right combination of these measures reduces the seabird by-catch to virtually zero.

This is not rocket science, just good basic fisheries management. The real challenge is to make these solutions mandatory on every longline vessel, not just some.

So the good news is that there are easy solutions. But it is frustrating, to say the least, that it is taking so long for them to be implemented worldwide.

The threat to the albatross is a truly international problem demanding an international solution and that is why I have been doing what little I can to encourage countries to ratify the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.

I do particularly congratulate New Zealand and Australia for the leadership which they have given to the rest of the world.

The bad news is that the problem of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing appears to be worsening in many parts of the world, although there are encouraging signs of a reduction in parts of the Southern Ocean.

There are believed to be hundreds of these substantial pirate vessels, typically operating under flags of convenience, recognising no rules and with few exceptions evading every sort of sanction and penalty available under international law. It is estimated that they are responsible for about one-third of the total albatross and petrel deaths each year.

An idea which is gaining ground in many parts of the world is no-take zones or marine parks.

I know from the Royal Forest and Bird Society that seasonal no-take zones, while birds are feeding, are now being considered here. They would not only be crucial for the survival of the albatross and petrels, but they also have the potential to allow fish stocks to regenerate.

To me, the albatross may be the ultimate test of whether or not, as a species ourselves, we are serious about conservation: capable of co-existing on this planet with other species.

Despite the remarkable work done here at Taiaroa Head, no nature reserve will ever be big enough to encompass more than a fraction of such a nomadic bird's total requirements.

No single nation state can take much effective unilateral action, rather it calls for a major effort of international co-operation, and for the regional fisheries bodies to demand seabird-friendly fishing of all the vessels plying their waters.

And there is not much time left. The clock is ticking fast and even if mortality from longlining were, somehow, to be stopped overnight, recovery would take many decades.