Guest guest Posted November 19, 2002 Report Share Posted November 19, 2002 ***************************Advertisement*************************** eCentral - Your Entertainment Guide http://www.star-ecentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from thestar.com.my URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/11/19/features/albatross & se\ c=features ________________________ Tuesday, November 19, 2002 Hooked on danger By MICHAEL RICHARDSON FISHERMEN, yachtsmen and other seafarers who venture into the Antarctic Ocean between Antarctica and Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America speak with awe of the power of the wind and the waves. Yet this inhospitable region is the main feeding and breeding ground for the world & #8217;s albatrosses & #8211; the talisman birds of the ocean. Albatrosses spend most of their life skimming the seas in search of food and usually return to land & #8211; mainly remote islands in the Antarctic Ocean & #8211; only to breed. They use the wind and the up-currents it creates as it whips the surface of the sea into waves to tack and zig-zag for hours on end without a single wing beat. They even sleep while flying. The seven biggest albatross species include the wandering albatross, which has a wing span of up to 3.5m, the greatest of any bird. The albatrosses do not need to drink because they extract all the water they require from their food & #8211; the squid and fish that they find on the surface of the sea. But scientists say that the hunting and scavenging skills of the albatross and some other species of seabird that roam the oceans, among them petrels, shearwaters and frigate birds, has placed them in jeopardy as trawlers using baited hooks from lines that trail behind them for up to 130km move into even the most far-flung waters in search of new fishing grounds. Albatrosses and other seabirds often feed by scavenging behind fishing vessels and other boats, waiting for scraps to be thrown overboard or prey to be disturbed and rise to the surface. Australian officials say that from 50 million to 100 million longline hooks are set each year in the Antarctic Ocean, and as many as 1.1 billion are set throughout the world. Seabirds around the trawlers try to eat the bait from the hooks as the lines are fed out behind the boat. Many become snared and drown as the lines sinks. Others ingest discarded fish heads that still have hooks in them. Experts estimate that the careless practices of some longline fishermen could be unintentionally killing more than 300,000 seabirds annually, a third of them albatrosses. The longline fisheries of particular concern are those targeting southern bluefin tuna, which is used in sushi, and the Patagonian toothfish, a high-value restaurant fish in the United States, Europe and Asia that is known as Chilean sea bass, Antarctic black hake or mero. BirdLife International, an alliance of national conservation groups working in more than 100 countries, says that two-thirds of all albatross species are now threatened with extinction, up from one-third in 1994. “Longlining is the single greatest threat to these seabirds,” said Michael Rands, director of BirdLife International based in Cambridge, England. The organisation has listed 17 of the 24 albatross species as being threatened. It said that two of the species & #8211; the Amsterdam albatross and the Chatham albatross & #8211; are “critically endangered.” Three other species are listed as “endangered,” and 12, including the wandering albatross, are considered “vulnerable.” It said that nine other species of seabird, mainly petrels, were also threatened by longlining. “Over the past decade or so, the threats to albatrosses and other seabirds from longliners have become an increasing source of concern,” said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program. “The populations of many of the 24 species of albatross have been declining.” He said that the longlining problem was not confined to the Antarctic Ocean. Because there are longliners operating elsewhere, including in the North Pacific, he said, the problem was “a truly international issue that concerns many governments.” Toepfer issued a warning at a recent conference in Berlin on the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Officials and experts attending the meeting urged for ratification of a new international treaty to conserve albatrosses and petrels. If it is ratified, it could take effect later this year or early in 2003. The treaty requires signatory states to take specific measures to reduce longline catching of seabirds and improve the conservation status of albatrosses and petrels. Australia, Brazil, Britain, Chile, France, New Zealand, Peru and Ukraine have signed the treaty. But five states must ratify the agreement before it takes effect and so far only two, Australia and New Zealand, have done so. Protective means Relatively cheap and easy measures to prevent seabirds from swallowing baited hooks have been implemented by the longline fleets of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. They include towing bird-scaring lines with flapping plastic streamers, which the Japanese call tori, as a deterrent to scavenging, and tubes that set the fishing lines underwater, out of reach of the birds. They also include tying enough weights to the line so that it sinks more quickly; setting lines at night rather than during the day, when most albatrosses feed, and using thawed bait because it sinks more quickly. Rands said that implementing such solutions would benefit longline fishermen because more bait eaten by birds means less fish caught. Toepfer said that in the case of the critically endangered Amsterdam albatross, only 90 birds were left. Some other species are down to a few thousand or tens of thousands, according to scientists who monitor their breeding grounds. BirdLife International puts the total number of wandering albatrosses remaining at 28,000. It has listed the grey-headed albatross & #8211; a medium-sized albatross, with a wingspan of about 2m & #8211; as a vulnerable species even though there are estimated to be 250,000 birds remaining. This is because research by British Antarctic Survey scientists on the birds & #8217; main breeding ground & #8211; Bird Island, off South Georgia in the Falklands & #8211; revealed a 20% decline in the population over the past 20 years. The South Georgia population is thought to account for more than half the global population of the species. Albatross breeding patterns make the birds particularly vulnerable. Once they reach adulthood, at about 10 years of age, they return every second year to the same mate in their breeding grounds on the sub-Antarctic islands of the Antarctic Ocean, in territory controlled mainly by Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand and South Africa. Most birds lay a single egg. The resulting chick needs both parents to provide enough food before it is ready to fly out to sea by itself. If one parent is lost, the chick will likely starve. Nurturing takes a year. During this time, some wandering albatross parents have been recorded flying an estimated 150,000km while foraging for squid and fish.British Antarctic Survey scientists who have been studying the wandering albatross in South Georgia since the 1960s said that the breeding population had fallen by half in that time, while the number of young birds surviving is also falling year by year. Many of the chicks were found to be getting fishing debris, such as hooks and lines, in the food their parents brought them. Australian scientists have warned that large seabird populations that are quickly reduced to small, isolated populations often suffer from reduced fecundity, known as inbreeding depression. & #8211; IHT<p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2002 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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