At a dinner a few weeks ago, I noticed an interesting pin on the lapel of one of the other dinner guests, Robert Moore. It looked like a seagull with a huge wingspan. It was of course an albatross. Robert told me that it was pin for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)'s campaign to save the Albatross. The Albatross, arguably the most symbolic of birds for any mariner, is in danger of extinction as a result of ingesting hooks set by deep sea fishing boats. Over 100,000 albatrosses are killed every year as a result of this.

The Save the Albatross Campaign is a global initiative to work with governments and fishing companies to take measures. I thought this except from their web site summed up the problem perfectly. Below you can also see a video that shows how the Albatrosses are caught on the hooks while diving for bait.

Picture the scene.

You're in a restaurant. You're enjoying good company. You're really enjoying your simple meal of succulent Pacific salmon - having first checked that it is Marine Stewardship Council certified.

You take another bite. Swallow. Something's not right.

You've a fish bone stuck in your throat. With a bit of back slapping you dislodge it and continue your meal, your slight discomfort soon forgotten.

Now imagine if that had been a barbed, 2-inch, steel hook caught in your throat. That wouldn't be something you'd forget.

Luckily, this isn't something you'll ever have to worry about. But for the world's albatrosses this is an ever-present danger.

Discarded fish waste and bait offer an easy meal for an albatross, that a fishing boat spotted out in the open ocean is a tough opportunity to pass by.

Unfortunately, swooping to pick up that tasty piece of squid might be the worst decision that an albatross makes, as it is often attached to a hook that pulls the bird under the water. Drowning it.

This happens to an albatross around once every five minutes. Put another way, 100,000 albatrosses die like this every year.

Horrid and needless deaths

Dying at a rate of around one every five minutes, the albatross family is becoming threatened faster than any other family of birds. Eighteen of the 22 species of albatross are globally threatened with extinction, an increase from just seven in 1994.

Albatrosses are being killed in such vast numbers that they can't breed fast enough to keep up, putting them in real danger of extinction.

Without help, losses could become so great that recovery may never be possible for these majestic ocean wanderers.