Prince Charles backs endangered albatross

Prince Charles and Taiaroa Head ranger Lyndon Perriman with a northern royal albatross and her chick during the Prince's visit to NZ in March. Picture / Mark Mitchell

LONDON - Heir to the throne Prince Charles is to support a global project to help safeguard the future of endangered albatrosses.

Charles will attend a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) dinner on Wednesday to raise money to send marine specialists to South Africa and South America to train fisherman on how best to prevent seabird deaths.

The UK-based RSPB said more than 300,000 seabirds, including 100,000 albatrosses as well as hundreds of thousands of sharks and turtles, are believed to be killed each year due to longline fishing.

"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," Prince Charles said.

Nineteen of 21 species of albatrosses face extinction.

Operation Ocean Task Force will deploy the experts in South Africa, Uruguay, Brazil and Peru.

"Those countries have longline fleets hunting tuna and the much-prized Patagonia toothfish," said an RPSB spokeswoman.

"They throw out huge longlines with thousands of hooks on them which sit on the surface. The birds are lured down on to them and either drown or die through their injuries."

Record-breaking yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur will join Charles at the dinner.

"The albatross is one of the most amazing birds in existence. I hope that we still have the opportunity now to save these magnificent creatures before it is too late," she said.

The birds are famed for their large wingspan and ability to make long ocean journeys. The wandering albatross has a wingspan of up to four metres -- the broadest in the world.

During the Prince's visit to New Zealand in March he visited the Taiaroa Head Royal Albatross Visitor Centre on the tip of the Otago Peninsula.

The conservation of the albatross has long been a cause close to Prince Charles' heart and he gave an emotional speech imploring the need to care for and cultivate the birds' survival. "If they go it would be as if one's heart was torn out," he said.

His speech followed a lengthy walkabout on the reserve where he was able to have a close encounter with a nesting bird and her chick.

The Prince said he had long been looking forward to visiting the centre, which his sister, the Princess Royal, opened almost 15 years ago.

- REUTERS and NZ HERALD