An impressive case study of conservationists and fishermen working together.

To mark World Oceans’ Day, the RSPB and Birdlife International are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Albatross Task Force.  This is one of our most successful conservation programmes and serves as a powerful reminder of what can be achieved through hard work, expertise, creativity and the generosity of our supporters.  It also provides hope that we can tackle some of the most intractable global conservation problems.

Peter Prince and John Croxall of the British Antarctic Survey began systematic monitoring of albatross populations at Bird Island, South Georgia in the 1970s, continuing work started by Lance Tickell and Ron Pinder back in 1958-64. These studies of age, reproductive performance and survivorship started showing declines by 1979. By the late 1980s evidence was emerging of high bycatch levels in tuna fisheries off Uruguay and Brazil.  In 1990 John and Peter were able to demonstrate statistically significant declines in wandering albatross at South Georgia and at the same time the Nigel Brothers from Australia revealed annual mortality levels associated with the Japanese tuna fleet were in the order of 40,000 albatrosses.

Albatrosses became one of the most threatened groups of birds in the world with 19 out of the 22 species of albatross at risk of extinction (appearing in the Red List’s top three categories of risk: Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable).  The declines were primarily driven by huge numbers of birds being accidentally caught on longline fishing hooks and trawl cables: an estimated 100,000 albatrosses were being killed this way every year. To read more click here