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HARM the albatross and dreadful things can happen, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge warned. The albatross has long been under threat from pirate, long-line fishing. Much has been said of the need to protect the 21 remaining species of the bird, but environment minister Elliot Morley admits that there are no immediate solutions to the problem.

However, he says a milestone was reached when the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) was ratified in March 2004. It involves the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and the British Antarctic Territories. Morley also now leads an international…

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