Why have a significant number of dead albatross washed up on Ripiro Beach?
Regular beach patroller Noel Hilliam says he saw 12 dead albatross washed up along about five kilometres of beach south of Glinks gully about two weeks ago.
"I've never seen anything like this before. You sometimes see the odd one but never this."
He says the birds appeared to have been dead for some time and were "looking pretty battered."
"I'd like to know what caused it. Was it starvation, something they ate or a big storm?"
Mr Hilliam contacted the Department of Conservation but had not heard back from them at the time of print.
A live but exhausted southern royal albatross was found on the beach in mid January and taken to the Whangarei Native Bird Recovery Centre where, despite initially improving, it died.
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