Grey-Headed Albatross - Needs You!
- 6 Nov 06, 09:16 AM
Planet Earth - the high definition block buster started screening again last night in the UK with a spectacular on the polar regions. Awe and wonder makes us care.
This is a Grey-Headed Albatross chick - photographed in 1982 at South Georgia. All things being equal this bird will still be alive and in the prime of life. Their life history facts are awesome. They mature between the ages of 7 & 12 years old, over which time they choose a mate. They pair for life and live upward of 60 years. They rear a single chick every other year and both parents share equally in all partental duties - that's incubation (which takes 70 days), Brooding (another 20 days) and raising the chick - like this guy - which takes the rest of the Antarctic summer. In feeding the chick the parents fly thousands of miles, foraging around South Africa and way beyond. During their year off, they circumnavigate the globe. They return to their natal sites - ie, they raise their family where they were born.
Can I be any more anthropomorphic when writing about a wild creature.
These absolutely wonderful seabirds have evolved in an environment that has always been uncertain. Grey-Headed albatrosses, like all albatrosses - And perhaps the majority of seabirds - are never really sure where food is, because their food shifts about. The Grey-head eats squid largely- others krill - others scavenge (floating carcass's a favourtite for wandering albatross). Their ancestors lived in this same unpredictable world. To cope with this they have evolved a life strategy where long life, the production of few young and team work between the pair allows them to ride bad years. If they only lived 2 years (like a sparrow), they would never breed again if they failed in one year.
In the blog below about storm petrels (close relatives of albatrosses) you can read about the work of a Cardiff University group trying to decipher how stormies make decisions in good and bad years. You'll read that climate change is throwing up huge challenges for them, but they might be pre-adapted to cope.
. Ironically it's not global warming so much - that no doubt will hit them like every thing else later. It's the terrible impacts of over fishing and by-catch in the southern oceans.
This lovely Grey-Head is more than likely dead. Perhaps not because it failed to fledge, broke a wing or didn't acquire the feeding skills to survive. More likely it was snared on a long-line hook baited with squid after which it drowned. Nothing in their evolution has helped them cope with that. Albatross colonies are becoming empty world wide. Their amazing life history to cope with environmental change won't help them build up their numbers quickly even if all immediate impacts was stopped. Remember, they only produce a chick every other year - And after 12 years of growing up.
The TV show Planet Earth is a celebration of life on Earth. It's ok to feel awe and wonder - it makes people care. And we have to remember, it's not just global warming that is driving species to extinction. Global warming is our biggest challenge as a human race, but over exploitation of natural resources is snuffing out living world right now.
Watch Planet Earth - Watch Planet Earth the Future - And where every you are in the world - Listen to Planet Earth under Threat. 大象传媒 Radio 4, 20th November at 21.00 GMT and on the internet (look for Radio 4 on the 大象传媒 website).
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I support the Gray Headed Albatross.
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Indeed, according to IUCN all 21 species of Albatross are in decline. The dangers to both species and the environment from over fishing and brutal mechanised fishing techniques are well known, yet we continue to practice such methods. The good work undertaken in raising awareness will be to little avail if governments shrink from taking the action necessary to control the problem.
The Albatross crisis is perhaps also a good example of the effects of disturbing the natural food chains. If we continue to abuse the oceans in this way, the knock on effects may be more serious than many suppose. It may be unrealistic to stop fishing in many areas, but surely there is much we COULD do to introduce some sensible controls in order to limit the damage. No doubt the blog will also migrate towards the plight of whales in this context? I wonder if the blog is read in Japan and Norway....
regards, Julian
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There is work underway to train fishermen to use simple methods to avoid catching albatrosses - after all they'd rather have a fish on their hooks!
As part of BirdLife International's Save the Albatross campaign, the RSPB is funding an Albatross Task Force to work alongside longline fishing fleets off South Africa and South America.
You can read all about this work - including blogs from task force members - at www.savethealbatross.net
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Organisations like Greenpeace have been campaigning hard for changes to fishing methods- is this contrary to what they've been asking for? I thought hook and line fishing was better than nets? Or is it the fact the lines are just so long that they haven't got the necessary control?
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Alison
I'm afraid it's an unpleasant thought, but most seabirds will go for a bit of fish bait and these things are often left unattended for long periods.
Nets on the other hand, because they are normally submerged shouldn't affect most birds. However, they tend not to discriminate between capturing all other marine life (unless it is small enough to pass through the mesh).
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