Big Bird Race

aids albatross

conservation

Seabirds and gamblers don't usually flock together, but a recent partnership puts them both in the winner's circle.

A British bookmaker called Ladbrokes and several conservation groups have organized a 6,000-mile albatross race. The so-called Big Bird Race, which goes from Australia to South Africa, started in May and lasts until October.

So far, people from 230 countries have wagered on the winner. Some familiar names are Sir David Attenborough, Olivia Newton-John and Queen Noor.

Ladbrokes will pay off like it does in horse racing or sporting events.

The bookie, however, gives winners the option of donating their money to albatross conservation, which is the point of the race. Ladbrokes has pledged its own profits to the same.

The contestants are 18 shy albatrosses (shy, in this case, being a common name rather than an adjective), a species native only to Tasmania. Since these ground nesters cannot survive around dogs, cats and other introduced predators, the shy albatross's nesting grounds are now restricted to three small islands around Tasmania. Shy albatrosses currently number about 60,000 but are declining fast.

Juvenile shy albatrosses stay at sea for the first three years of their lives.

Through leg banding, scientists know that some of these birds go to South Africa. Others have been found in our own part of the world, the North Pacific, and people have seen shy albatrosses off North America's West Coast.

These far-flung sightings mean that the travels of shy albatrosses are mostly a mystery. Now, researchers are learning more.

The 18 albatrosses in the race, some fledglings, some adults, have been fitted with satellite transmitters that track the seabirds' exact paths.

Knowing where these birds go is important because the longline fishing industry is currently killing albatrosses by the thousands. An estimated 300,000 seabirds die each year, about 100,000 of them albatrosses, because of longline anglers. When albatrosses spot these ships laying out their miles of fishing lines, the birds go for the bait, get hooked and drown.

Longliners can avoid these senseless deaths either by dropping their lines at night, when the birds cannot see the bait, or by attaching bird-scaring devices to the lines. A few anglers take these bird-saving measures, but most do not, including many in Hawaii and Alaska.

If researchers can determine when and where albatrosses go fishing, longliners might have another option to save the birds. During albatross "season" they could fish elsewhere.

Longliners killing seabirds is similar to the former drift-netters killing dolphins. The destructive practice can quickly cause the animals to go extinct.

A major difference, however, lies in the solution. Drift-netting was banned, but longliners don't have to suffer such a drastic measure. They need only to modify their methods or their timing.

We Americans cannot bet in the Big Bird Race because online gambling is illegal here. (I tried and failed.) But we can root for these magnificent seabirds at www.ladbrokes.com or www.wildlifebiz.org.

My favorites are Ancient Mariner, Xanadu and We Will Rock You Rocky. But it doesn't matter who finishes first. In this race, all albatrosses win.