Copyright 2000 Reuters
July 10, 2000

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Australia called on Monday for an international conservation agreement to save the albatross, one of the world's most majestic sea birds.

Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill warned that some of the 20 species of albatross in the Southern Hemisphere out of a world total of 24 species could soon be wiped out if changes were not made to longline fishing practices.

"Albatrosses are highly migratory birds flying thousands of miles across the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans," Hill said in a statement released as he opened an international meeting on how to protect the birds.

"Consequently, they are a premier example of why individual countries acting alone cannot guarantee their survival."

Hill said longline fishing -- in which up to 10,000 barbed hooks are set on lines a mile or more long -- had killed an estimated 250,000 sea birds, many of them albatrosses, in the past three years. The giant petrel was also at grave risk.

Longline fishing is the preferred method of poachers fishing for Patagonian toothfish, also known as sea bass or black hake.

Members of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, an international treaty charged with protecting Southern Ocean resources, estimate 60,000 seabirds are killed by pirate fishermen in the Southern Ocean each year.

Albatrosses, whose wingspan can reach 11.5 feet and which spend up to eight years at sea after leaving the nest, dive for baited hooks, are pulled under the water and drown.

Australia and New Zealand have been at the forefront of efforts to save the albatross, working with the fishing industry to introduce new longline technology and limit the periods for which the lines are set.

In 1997, Australia also started working for an agreement between regional nations and those with fishing interests in the area on a common approach.

Representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, South Korea, Namibia, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Britain and the United States are attending the conference in Australia's southern Tasmania state.

Hill said this was the first time so many countries had been given the opportunity to meet and discuss ways to protect these birds. Error: Unable to read footer file.