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title: "UPDATED.  After flying for nearly four decades in the Southern Ocean a Southern Royal Albatross is killed by a trawler"
---

# UPDATED.  After flying for nearly four decades in the Southern Ocean a Southern Royal Albatross is killed by a trawler

An old record has come to light recently of a banded Southern Royal Albatross *Diomedea sanfordi* killed by a 70-m bottom trawler fishing for finfish in the South Atlantic. The bird died after colliding with the warp cable and was hauled on board on a splice in September 2008 between 47° and 51°S.

 The albatross was banded (as R 21101) on Fizeau Ridge, Campbell Island, New Zealand on 1 Oct 1970 as a chick, making it 38 years old when it met its end.

 The vessel was reported as using mitigation measures (bird-scaring lines) while fishing. The vessel's bosun had kept the band in his possession before passing it to a fisheries observer aboard late last year.

 Southern Royal Albatrosses appear to be relatively rarely killed by collisions and entanglements with trawlers in the South Atlantic, although a few previous occurrences have been reported, including three on the Patagonian Shelf south of 46°S in a publication co-authored by Marco Favero, Chair of ACAP's Advisory Committee ([click here](https://www.acap.aq/2010-news-archive/working-to-reduce-mortality-of-black-browed-and-southern-royal-albatrosses-by-patagonian-trawlers)) and one in a paper by Ben Sullivan of BirdLife International's Global Seabird Programme and his colleagues.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/S/Southern_Royal/Southern_royal_sitting%20by%20Aleks%20Terauds.jpg)

 References:

 Favero, M., Blanco, G., Garcia, G., Copello, S., Seco Pon, J.P., Frere, E., Quintana, F., Yorio, P., Rabuffetti, F., Cañete, G. & Gandini, P. 2011. Seabird mortality associated with ice trawlers in the Patagonian shelf: effect of discards on the occurrence of interactions with fishing gear.  [*Animal Conservation* 14: 131-139](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-1795.2010.00405.x/abstract).

 Sullivan, B.J., Reid, T.A. & Bugoni, L. 2006. Seabird mortality on factory trawlers in the Falkland Islands and beyond.  [*Biological Conservation* 131: 495-504](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320706000693).

 With thanks to Marco Favero, Graham Parker and Graeme Taylor for information.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 February 2012, updated 27 February 2012*