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                       LAST FLIGHT OF THE ALBATROSS
                               By Jon Sumby.
     (Article appeared in Sea Shepherd Log 4th 1/4 1994, with photos)

PRIVATELY, scientists are pessimistic about the survival of the Albatross. 
The general belief is that population extinctions will occur within a
decade and that whole species will be gone in 30 to 40 years, unless
immediate action is taken.

Publicly, the fact that some populations are disappearing at the rate of
ten percent each year, while another is reduced to nine breeding pairs,
is causing great concern and last year brought the recommendation that all
of the worlds Albatross be listed as 'at risk' or 'endangered' under the
Bonn Convention of 1980. 

Ten of the world's fourteen Albatross species live in the isolated vastness
of the Southern Ocean, endlessly riding the gales that are known as the
'Roaring Forties'. The Albatrosses solitary life and its sudden, silent,
appearance far from land has mystified and fascinated sailors for a
century. The large bird, gliding effortlessly above the waves without a
flap of wing, has become a thing of myth and legend. For sailors braving
the treacherous Southern latitudes, the sight of the great snowy white
birds above the endless grey water became an omen of luck and hope.

In the Southern Bluefin Tuna fishery, Albatross are a by-catch, an
unwanted, useless by-product of this lucrative industry. Thousands die each
year, hooked and drowned. Some Albatross populations are down by as much as
80%, with no signs that the kill is abating and indications that the
industry, and by-catch, will grow. The outlook is bleak.

                              A Solitary Life
Weighing in at almost twelve kilos and with a wingspan of over eight feet,
the Wandering Albatross is the world's largest seabird. To survive in the
harsh Southern Ocean it is perfectly adapted, so well in fact, that it is
confined to these seas as it needs the strong winds of the Roaring Forties
to lift its heavy body.

Life for the Albatross begins on the isolated islands of the sub-antarctic.
On these islands, such as the Crozets or South Georgia, the young Albatross
grow, stretching and testing their wings as down disappears and feathers 
grow. Then one day, as it faces the wind with its wings outspread, it is
lifted up and carried away. It will not see land for the next five to seven
years. During that time it will mature, roaming the vast open seas of the
South, until returning to its island and choosing a mate.

Albatross mate for life and produce one egg together, every two years. 
In the large ground nest, the parents take turns to incubate the chick.
While one sits, the other flies on long foraging trips,between 14 and 30
days. They travel up to 15,000km, sometimes almost to the edge of
Antarctica, seeking squid and fish and scavenging along the way.If they do 


not return, the bird on the nest has been known to wait in excess of 50
days, before being driven from the nest by hunger. The chick, defenseless,
soon falls prey to the elements or the ever prowling Skua. 

It takes nine months to rear a chick, but once successful, the adults
depart once again to their solitary ocean ways. They will not meet for
another two years, but they will return to the same nest, and recognising
each other, will soon begin their clumsy but gentle mating dance. They
repair their nest and begin again.

During the two years that they spend apart, each bird glides up to 700
kilometres per day. In 1993, a team of Australian scientists tracked
several Wandering Albatross a third of the way around the globe. From the
cuttlefish rich waters off eastern Australia, then down to Tasmania,
turning west into the wind, they travelled into the Roaring Forties across
the Indian ocean to pass Amsterdam Island before reaching the Crozet
Islands, there to breed. It is thought that the females move north during
this two year seperation, heading for better feeding to gain body weight,
while the males stay further south. The Albatross make these trips
virtually without flapping a wing for days on end, and scientists believe
they have highly tuned senses that allow them to 'hitch rides' on high
pressure systems. The birds also use the wind shear from wave movement to
drift a few feet above the water as they travel and search for food.

The combination of slow maturity and slow reproductive rate, allows them to
maintain a population that is in balance with the harsh environment in
which they live. It is these same characteristics that makes them so
vulnerable to the destruction caused by humanity. It is their oceanic
existance, vast range and scavenging habit that attracts them to the very
thing that is their greatest threat. 
The more that is learned, the more it realised how little we know about
these large and unique birds. Living a life far from land, in a world that
is the wind and the stormy sea. But even there, the Albatross cannot escape
the workings of the industrial exploitation of the sea.

                         Hook, Line but no Sinker
The flesh of the Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) is highly prized, fetching a
premium price (average $AUS 51 per kilo) in the fish markets of Japan.
Favoured for sashimi and sushi, a single whole fish can fetch $AUS 25,000,
Finding the fish is also expensive.This fast moving migratory pelagic ocean
fish, is to be found only in the stormy seas between 30  and 50  south.

SBT form a single population and is only found outside their migratory
range when they push north, into the Indian Ocean, to spawn in the warmer
waters south of Java. The young migrate south and east, moving along the
Australian continental shelf, before heading out to sea to mature.
The targets of the Japanese longline industry are the adults,which they
pursue along with Yellowfin, Albacore and Big-eye Tuna.




A typical longline vessel set between 2400 and 3000 barbed, steel hooks
each day from a mainline up to 100 km long. The mainline is released from
starboard of the stern as it moves ahead at a steady ten knots.The hooks
are hand-baited with foot long baitfish or squid. The crew throw the hooks
out to port after a branchline has been clipped to the mainline.The hook,
which has no sinker, may not sink until more than 50 metres from the ship,
or take even longer if brought to the surface again by the turbulence of
the wake. A hook leaves the ship every six seconds, sinking to a depth of
60 to 100 metres.

Behind each boat a screaming mob of Albatross, Shearwater and Petrel jostle
for position.They scavenge around the empty baitboxes thrown overboard,
squabble over the damaged baits that are dumped and dive and fight over the
baited hooks as they sink in the ship's wake. It is then, in the time it
takes for the bait to sink out of reach, that the birds are at risk. 
Petrel and Shearwater are too small to swallow the baits, but the can dive
and retrieve it from almost six feet down. Albatross can't dive that far,
but they can bully and steal from the smaller birds, while snatching baits
still on the surface. For some, this their last flight. It lasts 20 hours.
- on the end of a hook, 100 metres down- a drowned lifeless corpse,
discarded as trash on the deck of a longliner.

                             An Underestimate.
Over the last twenty years, working on remote, sub-antarctic islands,
scientists were detecting an increasing population decline among the
Albatross of the Southern Ocean. The chief suspect, longline fisheries,
experienced a rapid growth over the same time. Birds were observed dying on
the nest from hook wounds, but all the action was far out to sea, out of
sight.

It wasn't until some important observational research was carried out by
Australian and New Zealand scientists, that the true extent of the toll
taken by the fishery was revealed. The 107 million or more hooks,  set by
the Japanese industry alone, are responsible for at least 44,000 Albatross
deaths each year. This often-quoted and well researched estimate, is on the
low side, an underestimate, because it does not include the losses caused
by other fleets; from Korea, Indonesia, Uruguay, New Zealand, Taiwan, Peru,
Brazil, Hawaii, Namibia or Australia.Albatross that are hooked, but escape
with fatal injuries, hooked Albatross that are eaten by fish or torn off
during hauling, the loss of a breeding season while an Albatross waits for
a matethat has died.
The Australian scientist who made the estimate, did so in 1990 and       
longline fleets have increased since then.
The estimate data was gathered in an area that is acknowledged, by the
Japanese fishing masters themselves, to have a low strike rate. In other
areas, such as around South Africa or South Georgia, the Albatross hook
rate is up to six times higher, for each set of the longline. The Japanese
longline fleets are the best and so tend to take less Albatross than other
fleets. The actual global annual kill could easily be double the estimate. 
Many of the dead Albatross also appear to be inexperienced young birds in
their first years of oceanic wandering. This means that the Albatross lose
twice- they lose the young of previous seasons efforts and they lose
potential breeding adults- leaving a dwindling, aging adult population.


                              Dying for Sushi
Of the Albatross, some species are more at risk than others, though all are
threatened. The relationship between the birds and commercial fisheries is
complex and dynamic, different in each situation. Each island population is
affected to different levels, but some trends are well observed, and the
industry is directly implicated in the decline of twelve of the Albatross
species. 

The Wandering Albatross, being big and agressive, is hard hit with recent
estimates showing a population drop of at least 50%, with maybe fewer than
26,000 breeding pairs in the world. The Black-browed Albatross is in
trouble in Australian waters, with a possible 80% reduction in population.
Around the world the population drop is about 30%. For the Royal Albatross
there are probably less than 16,000 beeding pairs. Two Albatross are
already endangered- the Amsterdam and the Short-tailed. While the Grey-
headed and the Shy Albatrosses are thought to be at great risk.

Most data has come from observers on the ships of the Japanese fleet, and
it is not known how much impact other fishing nations are making. In the
Australian fishery it is considered to be relatively small. The fleets of
Uruguay, Peru, Brazil, Namibia and Hawaii are reported to catch many
seabirds. In Hawaii, they are also intentionally killed. The Korean and
Indonesian fleets are likely to have a similar experience to that of the
Japanese, while New Zealand also has a small by-catch.

                             Voluntary Change
Twelve countries control the Albatrosses breeding islands. In Australia,
the focus has been on working with the longline industry to get voluntary
change. As one government official said, "I could close them down
overnight, but then they would just hit the High Seas." Attempts to control
the industry risk driving them out of a countries Economic Zone, into
international waters, where they are uncontrolled. 
There are easy changes that can be made. The most effective would be if the
longline fleets changed to night setting. Albatross deaths would then drop
by an estimated 90%. Baits that are cast frozen float longer, while the
baitfishes swimbladders are often inflated with air, causing them to float.
Thawing the bait and spiking the baitfish would reduce this floatation. 
By using a long pole with a streamer attached- a tori pole- savings of up
to $AUS 4.9 million are possible. Poorly thrown hooks increase the chance
of a bird being hooked, this may be reduced by mechanisation. 

This is the approach that has been taken in Australia. Between 1991-93 the
Fisheries Resources Research Fund gave an engineering firm $AUS 120,000 to
develop a bait-throwing machine, while funding greater than $170,000 has
been provided for basic research.
This approach is having its successes. The majority of the longliners now
set at night, at least in the Australain Fisheries Zone around Tasmania.
Reportedly the mechanical bait-thrower, developed by Munro Engineers, and
sold for about $AUS 30,000 is gaining favour on many of the ships. 



Equally, this approach has had its critics. It has been pointed out that
Australia is dealing with the best fleet in the world, the Japanese. Other
fleets that run the cheapest, leanest secondhand operations will not be
interested in expensive mechanical aids. Particularly where labour is
cheap. In many local industries, the cost of re-outfitting amy not be worth
it. And in some industries, such as the Hawaiian, Albatross are seen as an
enemy, and changing that mindset would be hard.  

But the biggest problem is time. Some scientists believe that these slow
changes, constant research and adjustment, use up the time that the
Albatross don't have. Education programs change attitudes slowly.
Techniques that reduce the deaths by a percentage, won't stop them
completely and will only slow the eventual destruction. Even a reduced kill
will still threaten some Albatross. A zero bycatch, is needed for most of
the threatened species to recover. Some believe that, since the
establishment of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin
Tuna, the threat of uncontrolled high seas fleets is reduced as the
Convention is binding through the whole of the Southern Ocean. But the
nations that are not members to the Commission, aren't held by it.

And if legal control is created, who will enforce it?

                                     
                              As Time Goes By
In 1991, when the critical nature of the Albatross bycatch was evident, the
Australian government, through the Australian Nature Conservation Agency,
(ANCA) comissioned a major review of current Albatross knowledge.

This report, published in 1993, stated that the problem facing the
Albatross was real and recommended that all Albatross species be listed
with the Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild
Animals. The Amsterdam Albatross was to be included in the "endangered"
list, along with the Short-tailed Albatross. The rest were to be included
in the "unfavourable conservation status" list.
A listing would allow conservation procedures to be initiated, and with
animals listed as "endangered' it would prohibit any kill of that animal.  


Moving rapidly, the ANCA then proceeded to draw up an application for the
listings, to be presented at the next Convention meeting. This application
was withdrawn when they were notified that they had not properly consulted
with other interested parties, particularly the foreign trade sections of
government. ANCA is currently preparing to resubmit the application, in the
near future.

In June of 1994, in Hobart, the first meeting between relevant
organisations involved with the bycatch issue was held. At this meeting it
was decided that a 'united' Australian approach should be developed, along
with a Threat Abatement Plan (TAP), for further research into the bycatch
issue and its mitigation. 

In August, under the auspices of the Australian Fisheries Management
Authority, a second meeting was held, and here it was decided that the TAP
should become a "draft Recovery Plan" as longlining had not yet been listed
under the Australian Commonwealth Endangered Species Act (ESPA)- which is
the primary means, obligatory for all parties, available to mitigate a
threatening process. The "Industry reiterated that there was no need to
list anything under the ESPA to get a draft Recovery Plan up and running,
in fact, there was more chance of gaining strong industry support without a
ny listings occurring."  The Japanese industry representative (Yuji Kawai-
Japan Tuna) then went on to "affirm their (industries) support to 
co-operate in an informal way", but noted that, "if the process became to
formal, everthing would need to be done on a Government to Government basis
and possibly slow the process down."  The industry stated that the draft
Plan "needed to be flexible and not to bureaucratic as there needed to be a
strong informal link to strike a balance between all parties".

When a Sea Shepherd spoke to AFMA SBT manager, Lindsay Chapman in November
1994, he denied knowledge of any Plan at all. Longlining is now being
nominated as a "threatening process" under the ESPA along with a nomination
for SBT as "endangered".

Prior to this time the Trilateral Agreement members, Japan, Australia and
New Zealand were drafting up the Convention for the Conservation of 
Southern Bluefin Tuna. This was ratified on May 20th, 1994. The first
meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna
(SBT) was held that month. The ratification gave the Convention treaty
status and allows for global management of SBT under a legally binding
international regime.

However, six months later, one frustrated source said that the Japanese
were already stalling the process, even at this early stage, by prolonging
debate and by presenting their own draft definitions and recommendations
that are so vague and innocuous that, if adopted, the Commission would be a
'toothless tiger'. They have argued that the Albatross don't even come
under the power of the Commission as they do not meet the "ecologically
related species" definition as the bycatch is through "association" not a
"relationship". The draft terms of reference will continue to be discussed
next year. The Japanese industry may even argue against any Bonn convention
listings also, as any listings will directly interfere with their capacity
to fish. Most recently, an attempt by Kenya to get a CITES listing for
Southern Bluefin failed after Japan used diplomatic channels to persuade
Kenya to withdraw the proposal. The Japan Fisheries Agency has a special
unit, the Fishing Ground Protection Section, that is dedicated to
protecting Japanese fishing interests around the globe.

To the Albatross, there is only their own existence, far out to sea, riding
the winds as the travel. The threat they face is human, and real. It is
time that the Albatross don't have.
Driven by profit, the industry has no real answer and will only act in
favour of the Albatross interest as far as it does not compromise profits.

The whales have someone to speak for them, so to the Panda, Koala, Eagle,
the Redwood and wild rivers. As they fly the lonely Southern Ocean, who
will speak up for the Albatross?


SOURCES
AFMA- Australian Fisheries Management Authority.
ANCA- Australian Nature Conservation Agency.
BRS-  Bureau of Resource Sciences.
DPIE- Department of Primary Industry and Energy.
TPWS- Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service. 
Museum of New Zealand.

STOPPRESS: Taiwan is reportedly approaching the SBT treaty partners  with a
view to signing on to the Convention as an 'observer' nation. Vietnam is
intending to enter the tuna longline industry and is purchasing 40
longliners with financial assistance from Taiwanese business.

Jon Sumby 
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society - Australia: Tel/Fax +61 3 9482 4668
                   <nonni@ariel.its.unimelb.edu.au>