TODAY

Male presenter (Edward Stourton ?)

Twelve minutes to nine: 'The albatross could be facing extinction'

More and more are being injured and killed by the hooks of long line fisherman.

They swoop down for the bait on the hooks, that is the end, it is a pretty sad thought isn't it? It is a magnificant bird immortalised in the poetry of Coleridge.



  "

At length did cross an Albatross,

Far out the fog it came

As if it has been a christian soul

We hailed it, in gods name

It ate the food it nair had eat

Round and round it flew

The ice did split with a thunder fit

The helmsman steered us through,

And a good South wine sprung op behind

The Albatross did follow.

And every day for food or play

Came to the mariners hollow.

Morning, I am gently rocking to and fro on the 'English Rose' a yacht that has been round the world three times.

Bad time for the albatross. When the albatross was killed all the people on the boat died. If we now kill the albatross, wich lives as long as we do and has been around as long as we do. If we kill it now, and all the albatrosses are dead. What kind of luck are we going to have?

Now you have just been following the sub polar track of the albatross. What evidence of its demise?

I can only go on the statistics. But when I was first down there, I have been there in every decade in the last six decades. And I can only say that you can see nothing like what you used to see.

Now what is to blame exactly for this?

Well, presently since the ninety eighties, the fishing fleets have finished the 'Grand Banks', the 'Barentz Sea', the 'Noth Sea'. They all going right down into the southern ocean. And fishing for a thing called 'Pathagonian Tooth Fish'. With lines upto eighty miles long.
And they put down one billion hooks a year with frozen bait wich floats. The birds catches the bait and is dragged down to its death. It lives for eighty years, it can only breed with one mate and it has one chick every two years.

Is the UK able to do anything about this?

Well ofcourse the UK is responsible for 'South Georgia', the 'Falkland Islands', 'Tristan da Cuha'. Wich is the depts where these fish are caught. And it is up to the UK to enforce the regulations. Wich will stop pirate fisherman from fishing without any regard at all for the safety of the birds.

It is not just the albatross isn't it? It is another great named bird, a sea bird named the 'Spectacled Pertil' as well?

Well, there are twenty one species of albatross, the 'White Chinned Petril', the 'Spectacled Petril' the are all caught in great numbers. Our petition has raised a hundred thousand signatures. That is one signature for each bird killed every year.

And you have said that if you die in the next five years that this voyage is going to be, the course it has been very difficult trip I know.

It has been a very hard voyage. But it is something I passionately beleive in. As I say for the last six decades I have been going there. The bird means a great deal to me it is something nobody ever sees now. Because we go by air, we do not go by sea anymore. Twelve foot wing span, been around forever. It is a symbol of the sea! The world is covered three quarters by ocean. Wich all is going into a sink. We have caught all the fish! What is going to happen to the bird? I hope to become an Albatross when I die. Originally it would have been for eithy years now it is only for eighty weeks.

John Ridgway, captain of the English Rose, many thanks for joining us this morning.

Thanks a lot.

Contents

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Photos

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Crew

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Log

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Press

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RSPB

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Petition

• 
  Birdlife Press release
  
  Roof raised for Ridgway's return
  
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  RSPB Press Release
  
  Sailor’s return exposes plight of albatrosses
  
• 
  Radio 4: 'TODAY'
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/
• 
  The Times
  
  Atricle 'saved' by Richard
  

(Only UK BBC digital subscribers)


24th June 2004, 21:45

In at the Deep End


Captain Adventure: To John Ridgway, adventure is the proof of being alive. For his 65th birthday, he planned to sail solo around the world, but first, a voyage to test himself and his new equipment.