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NATURE
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Nature offers a window on global natural history, providing a unique insight into the natural world, the environment, and the magnificent creatures that inhabit it.
nhuradio@bbc.co.uk
If you like natural history and you're interested in the environment, why not visit Radio 4's first ever interactive blog here.
You can read, watch and listen to natural history on the radio.
And being a blog,Ìýyou canÌýof course contribute to it...
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| Grey-headed albatrosses (© British Antarctic Survey) |
Ocean Wanderers
Albatrosses spend most of their lives at sea, only returning to land to breed. They are famed for their long journeys but recent research carried out by the British Antarctic Survey has shown just how far and fast they can travel.
Although albatrosses are supremely well adapted to some of the harshest environments on the planet, they are rapidly declining because they get caught on longlines - fishing lines with thousands of baited hooks which can be up to 80 miles long.
As the lines are set, the birds swoop down to take the bait, usually squid or fish, get caught on the hooks, dragged under and drowned.
Euan Dunn, head of marine policy at the RSPB, estimates that up to 300,000 birds are killed this way each year, 100,000 of them albatrosses.
But scientists are now working with fisheries to minimise the impact of longlining and simple measures, like using streamers to scare the birds away, can prevent thousands of albatross deaths.
And consumers can now play their part too. The Marine Stewardship Council certifies sustainable fisheries that are taking these measures to minimise bycatch.
But, they can only work with legal fisheries and the biggest threat to albatrosses and other marine wildlife may now be unregulated or "pirate" fishing.
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RELATED LINKS
Information about
research into orang-utans and their diet
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Wildfacts:Ìý
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Science & Nature
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