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Big Bird Race 2005 Updated Commentary by Tim Nevard of the Conservation Foundation:
The Ladbrokes.com 2005 Big Bird Race has revealed a sad and salutary tale unfolding in the Southern Ocean. This year, there has been unprecedented mortality amongst juvenile Tasmanian Shy Albatrosses. We have double checked the satellite transmitters, researched the satellite pass predictions and reviewed our attachment procedures and have come up with only one plausible explanation for the widespread and early loss of signals that we have experienced this year. The birds are dying in unprecedented numbers. Why is this happening? At this stage, we do not know. What we do know is that Little Penguins are having a catastrophic breeding season in both Tasmania and Victoria, and Gannets in Tasmania have barely fledged any chicks. As there has been no previously published study of juvenile Albatrosses prior to ours, we have nothing to go on. We shall therefore be sending a special team to Albatross Island in July to see how many young birds failed to make it off the island. In the meantime, the only cause that immediately suggests itself is very poor fishing this year. The track taken by the current race leader, the RSPB’s ‘Avocet’, who is currently off Esperance in Western Australia, is further south than the other birds, and it is just possible that the fishing has been better offshore than closer in to the coast. ‘Eighteen Stone of Idiot’ and White Mirabelle’ seem to be circling just south of Kangaroo Island, possibly having found some richer fishing grounds. Neither ‘Emu’ nor ‘Romford Slim’ have left the Mewstone or Albatross Island, and may not do so until the end of May. If they do not fledge by then, their chances of survival are slim. In 2005, Mother Nature has been the harshest of judges – underlining, if ever one needed to, the absolute urgency in curtailing the catastrophic additional effects of longlining.
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