Bid to end killing of albatrosses

SAVING albatrosses from agonising deaths in the South Pacific is the critical fundraising effort of this year's Global Birdfair.

- Stuart Winter

Ocean wandering seabirds are being hooked and dragged to their doom as a tragic consequence of longline fishing.

So to combat the shocking death toll of endangered Antipodean albatrosses - now numbering fewer than 50,000 adults - along with a raft of other shearwaters and petrels, conservationists are championing the Safeguarding Ocean Species project.

Sums raised from next week's three-day Global Birdfair will go towards financing BirdLife International's work raising awareness and supporting best practice longline fishing measures.