Charles in bid to save bird

2005-03-06 18:06

Dunedin - Britain's Prince Charles made an impassioned plea on Sunday for international action to save the world's dwindling albatross population - but couldn't escape the interest in his upcoming wedding that has dominated his current South Pacific tour.

Charles, a staunch conservationist, visited an albatross breeding colony near the southern city of Dunedin on the second day of a five-day stay in New Zealand.

"The most potent force driving (the albatross) to extinction is long-line fishing," the prince said, adding that the practice kills an estimated 100 000 seabirds, including albatross, each year.

The other "bad news" is the worsening worldwide problem of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing by hundreds of vessels that hide their origins and evade international laws, he said.

Humans' "stewardship of the world's oceans has been truly appalling", Charles told an audience of conservationists and indigenous Maori leaders at the nesting colony.

The prince asked whether the "dodo-like disappearance of this noble winged creature" would awaken people to the problem, or if they would "remain blind and deaf to the appalling tragedy unfolding ... in the vast foam-flecked spaces of the Southern Ocean".

Ultimate test

"To me, the albatross may be the ultimate test of whether or not ... we are ... capable of coexisting on this planet with other species," the prince said, winning strong applause from his audience.

Chatting later with tourists at the albatross colony, the prince said he hoped he had not delayed their visits.

Christine Olds, a retired butcher from Kent in England, joked that the prince would be forgiven "so long as we have an invitation to the wedding".

"I wish I could," Charles replied.

Earlier, as Charles arrived at the city's St Paul's Anglican Cathedral for a choral service and morning prayers, two little girls handed him drawings of the prince clad in a Scottish kilt beside his bride-to-be, Camilla Parker Bowles, with long blonde hair.

Robyn Nicholls, 9, and sister Rae, 7, said it had taken them three hours to draw the royal couple.

The prince was to visit a sheep farm later on Monday before flying to the capital, Wellington, for a formal welcome and reception by Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright - the British monarch's official representative in New Zealand.

He is to spend two days in the northern city of Auckland before leaving on Thursday to visit Fiji before returning to Britain.

- AP