The result of the Ladbrokes.com Big Bird Race 2004 was declared in August 2004. Having reached South African territorial waters, the winner was Jerry Hall's 'Aphrodite'. Publisher Nicholas Coleridge's 'Xanadu' was second. Nicholas is the great, great, great, great, great grandson of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who wrote the classic 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' about the Albatross. Third was actress Susan Hampshire's 'Monarch of the Glen'.



We will never be sure how many birds died through predation by sharks or sea eagles, succumbed to the weather, were longlined by pirate fishing boats or went offline through technology malfunction. However, we do know that 'Aphrodite's' journey was followed by millions of people around the world and that the Ladbrokes.com Big Bird Race 2004 brought the potential of extinction of albatrosses and other seabirds due to poorly managed longlining to the attention of the world.

'Aphrodite's' flight provided irrefutable evidence of the track taken by juvenile Shy Albatrosses on their first migration across the Indian Ocean, allowing a far clearer picture of the designation of potential fishing conservation zones. All of the other birds in the race also contributed greatly to our understanding of the routes taken and areas fished by Tasmanian Shy Albatrosses in their migration along the southern coast of Australia. In addition to these unprecedented seabird conservation gains, 'Aphrodite's' track may also have provided botanists working on the biogeography of the world's flora with empirical evidence of wind-blown spore dispersal between continents and remote landmasses, potentially contributing to a major global botanical discovery.

Despite the inevitable frustrations and challenges associated with running the first ever event of its kind, the Ladbrokes.com Big Bird Race 2004 was an outstanding flyaway success. We are looking forward to an even better race in 2005!

For further information, interviews, photography or b-roll, please contact:

Lisa Sabin on +44 (0)20 7025 6413 (lisa.sabin@redconsultancy.com)