DEFINITIVE ISSUE

Local Birds Definitive 2006

Issue Date: 15 November 2006









The Falkland Islands Post Office will be introducing a Christmas card rate of 20p for internal delivery and therefore require a new value within the Definitive series. The stamp depicts the Black-browed Albatross with Chick.

In addition, the Post Office is running low of stocks of the 25p and £5 stamps from the Birds Definitive series (the £5 has particularly high usage for overseas parcel rates) and these two values have been reprinted and will be issued with the 20p value.

It is worthy of note that this will be the first time that the 25p and £5 values have been printed by Cartor on unwatermarked paper. All three stamps will carry a 2006 date in their margin.

In order to satisfy likely collector requirement, a new first day cover depicting the Silver Teal will be issued and this will carry all three stamps.

The Black-browed Albatross is one of the world's most beautiful birds. It ranges across the entire southern ocean system. Their stronghold is the Falkland Islands, where over 60% of the world's population breed. But it is now classified as Endangered - two steps away from extinction. Populations in the Falklands have been declining at about 1% per annum. In the past ten years 38,400 birds have been lost.

This has been largely caused by commercial longline fisheries, which kill birds as they feed on discards or bait and are subsequently hooked and drowned. Black-browed Albatross are also under threat from trawl fisheries, which accidentally kill the birds when they are struck by their warp cables. Fishing is the most important industry in the Falkland Islands, taking 250,000 tonnnes annually and generating an income of £20m in licence fees for the Government.

Since 2001, Falklands Conservation and the Falklands Government Fisheries Department, in conjunction with the local fishing industry, has been developing and testing mitigation measures. Recognising the concern for the severe decline of these seabird populations, the international Agreement on the Conservation of Albatross and Petrels (ACAP) was ratified by the UK and the Falkland Islands in 2004. In the same year the Falkland Islands Plans of Action Seabirds for the longline and trawl fisheries were adopted, setting out a strategy to reduce incidental seabird mortality.

The number of albatross killed in Falkland waters has been reduced 4-fold in longliners and by 90% in trawlers. The Falkland Islands are now at the forefront of fishery seabird mitigation expertise and world leaders in best practice.

Technical Details

Designer: Una Hurst
Printer: Cartor Security Printing
Process: Lithography
Perforation: 13 x 13.3 per 2cms
Stamp size: 25.6 x 38.48mm
Layout: 50 (2 × 25)
Release date: 15 November 2006
Production Co-ordination: Creative Direction (Worldwide) Ltd

For further information, please contact John Smith, Pobjoy Mint Ltd, Tel: (44) 1737 818181 Fax: (44) 1737 818199 e-mail: john@pobjoy.com



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