PROTECTION OF ALBATROSSES AND PETRELS

That this House welcomes the campaign by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to save the albatross across the globe; congratulates the UK Government on its ratification of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP); notes that the UK's Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha, which has a key area for albatross conservation in its waters, has yet to rectify the agreement, and urges the UK Government to press Tristan da Cunha to ratify it; understands that there are only 9,000 Tristan albatrosses left and that spectacled petrels breed only on Tristan, on which the world population of less than 10,000 birds is confined; is concerned that with about 700 such albatrosses killed annually by long line fisheries off the Brazilian coast, this species is now classed as critically endangered by the IUCN (World Conservation Union); fears that long line fishing poses the greatest single threat to albatrosses, with more than 100,000 dying on baited hooks around the world each year, threatening with extinction all 21 species of albatross and six species of petrel; and welcomes the implementation of conservation measures by ACAP signatory states to protect the sailor's friend.