Tagged sea bird spotted after 20 years Environmentalists are
excited by the discovery of an endangered sea bird 10,000
kilometres from where it was tagged by scientists off Cape York
in far north Queensland more than 20 years ago. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the herald petrel
that was tagged on Raine Island in 1984 has been seen off the
coast of Mauritius. Not much is known about the rare birds and
Raine Island was thought to be their only nesting spot. The
EPA's Dr Col Limpus says the discovery means they have much
longer life spans than first thought and they nest at more than
one site. "It perhaps gives us some hope that there may be more
birds in the population than we thought, if they're moving from
one island to another then we may not just have the few at Raine
Island that we thought," he said.