Humane Society International: Albatross and Petrels

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albatross and petrels

HSI has expended enormous efforts over the years to protect albatross and petrels – the most endangered group of birds on the planet. The biggest threat to this highly endangered group of seabirds is incidental capture in fisheries and both long-lines and trawl nets are responsible. When the long-lines are set seabirds attracted to the baits get caught on the hooks and drown. It is estimated that a horrific 400 albatrosses die this way every week around the world. Trawl nets also pose a serious problem because the birds get caught and killed when they hit the warps trawl nets hang from.

HSI nominations have secured threatened species protection for albatross and petrels under Australian and international law and we continue to work hard to stop them dying in fisheries worldwide.

HSI Saving Albatross in Australia

Our campaign to prevent seabird deaths in Australian long-line fisheries has been one of our most successful. A HSI nomination submitted in 1995 secured the listing of Long-line Fishing as a Key Threatening Process under Australia’s national environment law. This led to the development of the Australian Threat Abatement Plan for Long-line Fishing – now entering its third iteration. As a member of the Threat Abatement Team, HSI has pushed for the toughest possible action to bring an end to albatross and petrel by-catch on long-lines in Australia. The Threat Abatement Plan now requires long-liners to only set their lines at night when there is less risk of seabird capture and to weight their lines so that they sink more quickly out of the reach of the birds. Thanks in large part to HSI tenacity on this issue, albatross and petrel deaths on Australian long-lines have been reduced tenfold over the past decade.

With the threat of long-line fishing coming under control, HSI attention has moved to trawl fishing. It emerged that Australia’s trawl fleets have been responsible for killing hundreds of albatross and petrels a year. HSI is working with the Australian Fisheries Management Authority to see the problem properly addressed through measures such as the mandatory retention of fish processing waste while trawl gear is in the water. This is because the waste, or offal as it is known, acts as bait for the birds bringing them into contact with the fatal trawl warps.

HSI Saving Albatross Worldwide

Following success on this issue at home, HSI worked with Australia to spearhead a Regional Agreement for Albatross and Petrels under the Convention for Migratory Species (CMS). HSI advisers attended negotiating meetings for the Regional Agreement as members of the Australian delegation. The Agreement was finalized in 2001 and Australia was the first country to ratify it later that year. The Agreement is bringing about greater cooperation to conserve this imperiled group of birds. The Agreement requires countries to undertake measures to protect albatross and petrels and their habitats from long-line fishing, breeding site disturbance, feral animals, disease and pollution and HSI attends the meetings of the Parties to make sure that they tackle these tasks effectively.

Crucial to the Agreement's success will be cooperation from, not just the albatross and petrel range states, but also distant water long-line fishing fleets from Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Spain. If albatross and petrel extinctions are to be avoided, the international community also needs to do everything possible to combat illegal poaching for Patagonian Toothfish in the Southern Ocean which is responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of seabirds.

Saving Albatross in Ecuador and Peru

While much attention focuses on industrial fishing fleets, thousands of albatross and petrels are also dying on the hooks of artisanal fleets. HSI has funded an exciting project to address this in the massive artisanal long-line fleets in Ecuador and Peru Read more.