Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to talk this evening about the plight of albatrosses. A lot of attention is given to the issues surrounding whaling, but much less to the plight of albatrosses. They are large, beautiful and graceful birds, aristocrats of the ocean with the capacity to make our spirits soar. Albatrosses and petrels are perhaps the most threatened group of birds in the world. Of the world’s 24 species of albatross, 23 are considered endangered or vulnerable according to the ‘red list’ criteria of the World Conservation Union. For some populations, such as the Macquarie Island Wandering Albatross and the Amsterdam Albatross, numbers are so low—less than 20 breeding pairs each year—that they remain threatened with imminent extinction. While individual nations have taken measures to protect albatrosses and petrels, these birds are susceptible to threats operating throughout their range. Conservation action by one nation alone cannot be effective in conserving highly migratory species. International action is required.

A primary threat to albatross and petrel species is incidental capture on longline fisheries, usually fishing for tuna and other billfish species. The birds get caught on the baited hooks of the longlines as they are set, and drown as the lines sink to do their fishing. Hundreds of thousands of birds are killed each year in this way. Measures are available to prevent this, such as setting lines at night when the birds are not present and weighting lines so that they sink too fast for the seabirds to get hooked. Australia and other countries are implementing such measures. However, conservation of highly migratory species such as albatrosses and petrels cannot be achieved by one country acting independently of other nations which share the same species populations or who fish within their range.

There is a real problem with Japanese longline fleets targeting southern bluefin tuna on the high seas adjacent to Australian waters. They kill an estimated 13,500 seabirds in this way, of which 10,000 are expected to be albatrosses and petrels. I have been provided with a copy of the preliminary legal advice prepared for the Humane Society International by the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development in London. The advice indicates that the Japanese government is failing to comply with obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the United Nations straddling stocks agreement in failing to cooperate with other countries to mitigate albatross and petrel bycatch in its high seas longline fisheries. It is at the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna that the situation is particularly bad. At this commission the Japanese government refuses to even discuss the adoption of mitigation measures for albatross and petrels, claiming that the convention only has jurisdiction over the target species, southern bluefin tuna. This has thwarted the Australian and New Zealand governments’ repeated attempts to have new mitigation measures agreed.

In contrast, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources has dramatically reduced levels of albatross and petrel bycatch in the toothfish longline fisheries it governs, proving that it can be done. This commission requires night setting and line weighting. These are measures that should be adopted by the pelagic longline fishers managed in relation to southern bluefin tuna as a matter of urgency. In the past, the Australian government has tended to confine its negotiations with the Japanese government on this issue to the southern bluefin tuna meetings, where it goes nowhere. I would like to urge the government to take this matter up with the Japanese government through other diplomatic channels and indeed to explore the potential for an international court case at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. We should be trying to give the albatross issue the sort of attention that the whaling issue is receiving—and I note that several albatross species are in graver danger of extinction than the whales. I ask that the Attorney-General examine the legal advice prepared for the Humane Society International. It details Japan’s legal shortcomings, and I ask that he investigate both the issue of an international court case and diplomatic pressure on Japan to address the issue. We should not allow albatross species to die out on our watch. I call upon Japan to ratify the Convention on Migratory Species and other species-specific agreements, and to agree to be bound by their obligations to take action to encourage the recovery of endangered species and restore those with unfavourable conservation status to a stable, or more stable, status.