EDM To Save the Albatross

12.00.00am GMT Wed 26th Jan 2005

EDM gains support of nearly 50 signatures in support of saving the albatross. Annette Brooke, Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, has tabled Early Day Motion 525 (EDM ) in an effort to protect the albatross and petrels. In light of the publication of an article in Science Magazine last week, tracking the albatrosses flying patterns, Annette has decided to re-issue this EDM noting that little action has been taken to protect these rare and endangered birds.

MP Supports Measures to Save the Albatross

The albatross is an extraordinary animal that has the ability to circumnavigate the globe in as little as 46 days and typically their flights average 600 miles per day, according to the British Antarctic Survey research published in Science Magazine last week. Annette hopes that this research of the migration patterns will enable governments and fisheries commissions to devise conservation plans.

Annette said, "It isn't often that a bird makes headline news. It is important that the government take measures so that these birds don't become extinct."

Unfortunately, 19 of the 21 species of albatrosses are in danger of extinction. Both albatrosses and petrels are threatened by baited hooks as a result of long line fishing. An estimated 100,000 albatrosses die annually on baited hooks, for example. Other threats to the birds include pollution and over-fishing of their prey.

The Early Day Motion 525 also calls for the government to press the UK's Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha, an area that is key to the conservation movement of albatrosses and petrels, to ratify the Agreement on the Conservation of the Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP).