Albatross: their world, their ways
Albatross: their world, their ways by Tui De Roy, Mark Jones and Julian Fitter RSPB with A&C Black £35 ISBN 9780713688122
Essentially this book is all about awareness raising… the plight of the worlds most wonderful wanderers is dire, and we can all bring pressure to bear on those responsible including, of course 99% of us wastrels in the western world.
The publisher’s puff to reviewers uses that tired and devalued phrase ‘stunning photographs, and just this once its not hyperbole but palid understatement… the birds are magnificent, the photographs excellent and together they add up to stunning and then some.
There are 24 species each profiles with photographs and essays and each is assessed for just how much its under threat and where that threat comes from. Most of us will know of the daily tragedy of long-line fishing casualties but it turns out that even trawlers have bird ‘by-catch’ [what a weasel word that is].
This is a visual treat and a knowledgeable treatise with each species ecology brought to our armchairs. Here they are with their widest wings and long lives as perfect a flying machine as the sea can reflect, but here to are the threats of man and are greedy wasteful lives cutting short many individuals and horribly close to snuffing out whole species. 100,000 birds a year die on long-lines, more will die unless we act… buy all means buy this sumptuous book, but whether you do or not visit www.savethealbatross.net and give your support!
Fatbirder
Buy this book from www.nhbs.com
Created: 29th Aug 2008
