NZ-bred albatrosses dying in fishing lines off South Africa, claims WWF

About 10 endangered albatrosses die every day in fishing long lines off South Africa, a third of them birds that breed in New Zealand, says WWF and BirdLife South Africa.

Samantha Peterson, BirdLife South Africa/WWF's responsible fisheries programme manager in Cape Town, said the group's latest research showed despite South Africa signing international agreements to protect albatrosses, and fishing vessels being required not to kill the birds, many were dying.

"Our research shows that for every fishing day, Korean-flagged tuna longline vessels fishing in South African waters kill around 10 albatrosses, sometimes more.

"A third of these albatrosses are shy albatross that breed in New Zealand."

The Volvo Ocean Race is now arriving in Cape Town after sailing through what WWF/Birdlife South Africa says are some of the most albatross-rich waters in the world.

Adrienne Cahalan, navigator aboard the Brasil 1 race entry, said all countries needed to work to save the albatross. "This is my fifth time sailing through the South Atlantic and the Southern Ocean and I have seen fewer albatrosses than at any other time since 1993."

Ms Peterson said 19 of the world's 21 albatross species were now threatened with extinction, "largely as a result of longline fishing - and every year 100,000 albatrosses die on the end of longline hooks.

- NZPA