NZ group acts to reduce albatross slaughter

A New Zealand group dedicated to saving seabirds has initiated a forum in South America to help fishers reduce albatross deaths.

Scheduled for mid-2005 in a host country yet to be named, the forum would involve fishers from Chile, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and the Falklands.

The forum has been set up by New Zealand's Southern Seabird Solutions so fishers can share techniques to prevent albatrosses drowning on commercial long lines.

Albatrosses and petrels were international travellers and linked New Zealand to South America, Chile's ambassador to New Zealand, Carlos Appelgren, said in announcing the forum yesterday.

"What happens in New Zealand's waters and what happens in South American waters have a huge bearing on their survival," he said.

Barbara Maas, of Care for the Wild International, which is funding the forum, said 100,000 albatrosses drowned on commercial long lines each year.

Fishing methods to reduce deaths included night line setting, reduced deck lighting, blue-dyed baits, sound deterrents, and offal discharge away from settings.

Albatrosses spend at least 85 per cent of their lives at sea and produce only one chick every two years, which both parents feed. So if one parent dies the chick starves.

Fourteen of the 24 albatross species breed in New Zealand, and nine breed only here. Some species have declined by 90 per cent in the past 60 years.

- NZPA