MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FIBS Breaking News.

Headlines:
Albatross; Demands; Antarctica; Extinction; Cruise Vessels; Wideawake;

Albatross

Falklands Conservation has described as "wonderful news" the granting of international protection to the albatross, after South Africa became the fifth country to ratify an international treaty on reducing longliner-related deaths.

The agreement on the conservation of albatrosses and petrels, known as Acap, obliges signatories to reduce the number of longliner deaths, and to take steps to protect breeding areas.

The treaty had already been ratified by Australia, Ecuador, New Zealand and Spain, but needed a fifth country to sign up before it came into force. It will now be enforced from the first of February next year.

I spoke to Conservation's Becky Ingham about the news this morning.

For the treaty to come into force in the Falklands, the UK would have to sign up but Becky said she was optimistic that might happen soon.

Becky Ingham there, talking about the protection of the albatross. Falklands Conservation is to join the charity BirdLife in lobbying the UK to ratify the agreement as soon as possible.

Demands

And the current state of diplomatic relations over the Falklands hit the headlines in the UK yesterday with a report that islanders have demanded stronger support from the UK after what Scotland on Sunday calls "a series of aggressive diplomatic moves by Argentina designed to raise the stakes in its age-old battle to gain control of the islands."

The newspaper quotes Harold Briley, co-editor of the Falkland Islands Newsletter, who says:

"There is a new government in Argentina, but no new dawn. We hear the same old rhetoric, repeating the same unjustified and anachronistic claim to the Falklands.

"The Falklands prosper as never before. Who would want to sacrifice this to join a nation that is corrupt, crime-ridden and bankrupt?"

He criticised President Kirchners refusal to have any direct dealings with islanders.

The article runs through recent diplomatic developments including a plea it says was made by Sir Rex Hunt to keep Michael Portillo away from last months' Argentine British Conference because it would give the meeting too high a profile.

But it does not have anything to say on the latest diplomatic dispute over charter flights to the islands, which Argentina recently threatened to ban.

The report describes the islands as having been transformed over the past 21 years from one of the most impoverished parts of British territory to among the richest.

Antarctica

Scientists say this week that the sea ice around Antarctica has shrunk by 20 per cent in the past 50 years.

Research published in the journal Science goes back as far as 1840 tracing the pattern of sea ice in the Southern Ocean, and lead author Mark Curran, quoted in the Guardian newspaper, said there was very little change in the amount of sea ice between then and 1950.

But since then, he says, there has been a rapid drop off in the amount of sea ice ? that is the layer of ice around the edge of the continent which is just a few metres thick. Its size is seen as a key indicator of climate change and global warming is being seen as a likely cause of the shrinkage.

Extinction

Thirty-eight species of plants and animals from the Falkland Islands have been named on a major international list of endangered and vulnerable species.

The RedList was released today by the World Conservation Union, known as the IUCN, which says there is a bleak outlook for biodiversity in the islands.

The list is published annually, but this year organisers give the Falklands special mention as one of a series of South Atlantic Islands with particularly vulnerable species. It says the islands native species are suffering because of what it calls "invasive alien species".

The IUCN says the islands "have developed their own unique suites of animals and plants that are extremely vulnerable to human disturbance. As on many other islands around the world, habitat destruction, introduced grazing animals and predation by and competition with invasive species are unrelenting."

The black-browed albatross has moved from a previous classification of vulnerable to now being considered endangered. Rockhopper and macaroni penguins are also classified as vulnerable.

In the plant world, the silvery buttercup, only found in the islands, is classed as endangered, and the hairy daisy is considered vulnerable.

Included in the list of 38 is the now extinct Falkland Islands wolf, which was still around when Charles Darwin visited the islands in 1833, but the last one is thought to have been killed in 1876.

Cruise Vessels

Despite the wind there are two cruise ships in the islands this morning.

The Akademik Ioffe is in Stanley Harbour and her 77 passengers were due to take a one hour Stanley Tour this morning.

And the Seven Seas Mariner has landed her 430 passengers who have gone off on shore excursions. She is due to leave around five oclock.

Wideawake

Questions were asked in the UK Parliament yesterday about Wideawake Airfield in Ascension island, and it was revealed that an agreement was signed last month paving the way for the airfield to open to civilian charter flights.

The so called Wideawake agreement was signed on October the first by the United Kingdom and the United State Governments.

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean told the House of Lords yesterday that it would be for airlines to decide on commercial grounds whether to take the opportunity to fly to Ascension. But she said the UK and Ascension governments would work closely together to encourage them.