Task Force To Save the Albatross
BirdLife International's Save the Albatross Campaign has entered a new phase with the launch of Operation Ocean Task Force, an initiative to place trainers on longline fishing vessels to show the crews simple and practical techniques to prevent seabird deaths.
Around 100,000 albatrosses a year - approximately one every five minutes - drown when taking bait from hooks suspended on longlines up to 80 miles long. As a result, 19 of the world's 21 species of albatross are now threatened with global extinction.
Hanging streamers near fishing lines to scare birds away, weighting lines to make hooks sink more quickly and dyeing bait to make it less visible to seabirds, are all simple, yet proven, techniques to avoid the deaths of albatrosses and other seabirds.
The Save the Albatross Campaign site will host information on all aspects of albatrosses, and there will be regular updates on the birds and other wildlife seen by crews taking part in the world's premier ocean sailing challenge - The Volvo Ocean Race - whose organisers are supporting the Save the Albatross Campaign.
The Volvo Ocean Race 2005–2006 will leave Vigo in northern Spain on November 12 and finish in Gothenburg, Sweden, next June, after completing a circumnavigation of the planet. During the Southern Ocean legs of the race, the crews will pass through some of the richest albatross waters in the world.
Visit the new Save the Albatross web site at www.savethealbatross.net.
