Save the Antipodean albatross
@Kath Walker/DOC

Save the Antipodean albatross

Help keep them from being killed by longline fishing vessels

The Antipodean albatross is New Zealand's most endangered albatross.

In a little more than a decade, we have lost two-thirds of the population. About 2,300 die each year, mostly killed by longline fishing vessels.

Under the current projected decline only about 400 breeding pairs may remain in 2050.

Add your voice

There are mitigation measures that can significantly reduce seabird bycatch. That can stop Antipodean albatrosses from dying.

  • You can set the lines at night as albatross only feed by day.
  • You can use weighted lines which sink faster so birds have less time to get at them. 
  • You can hang lines of streamers above that act as bird scaring devices.

These are all effective. Even more so when using all three at once. But in New Zealand only two are required, and other mitigation measures to prevent seabird bycatch are just recommended.  

We are calling on the Government to make all three best practice mitigation measures mandatory. 
 

A population in free fall

Two years on from the introduction of the National Plan of Action-Seabirds 2020, Antipodean albatross are still dying on fishing lines.

The recommended mitigation measures can reduce seabird bycatch but while they remain voluntary and largely unmonitored, they won’t be enough to save these majestic birds from drowning.

Each death puts this wide-ranging and slow-breeding species at risk of extinction, worsening the significant and dramatic population decline that has been happening since 2007.

To save the Antipodean albatross from extinction, we are working with the fishing industry, government and other parties to protect them in New Zealand waters and beyond. 

Together, we can save the Antipodean albatross.

Help us save them from extinction. 

Image
flying shy albatross
Submission

Seabird Mitigation Measures

Image
school of fish
Advocacy Update

Restoring our ocean

Image
trawler heading out
Advocacy Update

The future of seafood

Image
tail fins whale
Fascinating Facts

High sea, deep sea? Ocean zones explained

Image
pilot whales
Press Release

Landmark High Seas Treaty agreed

Image
Fishing trawler
Advocacy Update

Fishing and human rights