Quentin Hanich
John Ridgway Save the Albatross Voyage 2003-4
AIM: TO PREVENT THE NEEDLESS SLAUGHTER OF THE ALBATROSS
Birdlife Volunteer:
Leg 3, Capetown to Melbourne
Like many children growing up on the Australian coast, much of my life was spent on the beach. Summers were spent getting dumped at Bondi and fried at Bronte. Evenings were spent wading through rockpools squeezing squirters and prying under rocks. Winters are walking the beaches and cliffs watching the storms and feeling the spray. Over the years, the ocean seeped in and moulded me. Like many coastal people, the ocean became key to how I identified myself.
I am a coastal dweller. Not of the sea, but twixt land and water.
Later in adulthood, I learnt to sail and spent time at sea far beyond the coast. Out here in the realm of the albatross, I could lose the trivialities of modern life and enjoy the beauty and immediacy of the Southern Ocean.
The albatross is an icon of the Southern Ocean and a key figure in our mythology and culture. However, now we are on the verge of wiping out these majestic birds.
Like many, I assumed that these birds were protected by their majesty as I was not aware of the danger they were in.
This changed in 1999 when returned to uni and studied a degree with honours in Antarctic Studies at the Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies in Tasmania. My honours thesis analysed the sub-Antarctic toothfisheries and revealed that the current management framework and recent multi-lateral initiatives were ineffective against illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing vessels. The thesis recommended a multi-dimensional management response and detailed a set of specific actions addressing the problems.
These management failures were leading inevitably to the extinction of a many endangered albatross and petrel species.
In 2001 and 2002 I attended the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources as an non-goverrnment environment advisor to the Australian Government delegation where we actively lobbied for a variety of measures to halt pirate fishing and seabird by-catch. Despite continued statements of concern from many members present, many member States lacked the political will or interest to move beyond words and take action.
These political experiences revealed the continued failure of current international arrangements to effectively address pirate fishing and save the albatross.
What was needed was public exposure and political pressure to drive recalcitrant States and fishers to adopt the necessary measures to save the albatross from extinction. Its not rocket science, the solutions are all there. It just requires a will.
The savethealbatross expedition presents a tremendous opportunity to get out there to push these solutions and save the albatross. I am honoured and excited to be part of this adventure and look forward to once again setting sail into the Southern Ocean.
Me? I'm 33 years old, live in Canberra (too far from the coast for comfort) where I share a home with a gorgeous woman called Cin and two soccer mad border collies. We now spend our summers sailing (or repairing) our 15ft open boat 'Lookfar' and snorkelling at Jervis Bay on the south coast of NSW (or at least daydreaming or planning to).
Quentin Hanich
Canberra
May 2003
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Quentin.Hanich (AU)
Researcher U231179
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