Being reposted by Prince Charles is something to celebrate, especially when you have an important message to share.
A video made for World Albatross Day, by a Dunedin media company, was picked up by the prince on his social media last week, within 12 hours of it being uploaded.
It shared a powerful message about the Antipodean albatross, whose numbers have dropped by 60% in the past 15 years.
Founder of Animation Research Ltd and Taylormade Ian Taylor said the video was made in about two weeks for Live Ocean, a charity started by Kiwi sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke.
"We thought it was quite cool, but within 12 hours of it going up Prince Charles had put it on his Instagram as well."
The prince has previously shown interest in the giant birds, visiting the Royal Albatross Centre at Taiaroa Head in Dunedin in 2005 — and he is also a patron of the Southern Seabird Solutions Trust.
His support had not gone unnoticed, Mr Taylor said.
"There was not much time to do it but we pulled together a video and had to create a 3-D model of an albatross ... people were working really hard."
He said Science Alive Matauranga agreed to sponsor the video, with less than half an hour’s notice.
While it came at a busy time for his company, Mr Taylor said he recognised the message was important.
"These are our albatross, they are in our waters, and are off our coast — and the story really is really powerful."
He said Mr Burling and Mr Tuke were also pleased to see the video reposted by the prince, as it was their aim to bring awareness to the challenges albatrosses faced.
The pair also appear in the video, along with voyager Noenoe Barclay-Kerr who spoke of the importance of albatrosses to Maori navigators.
Manawanui Maniapoto Mills (11) narrates the video, saying the birds are "competing with our hunger, and they are losing".
Mr Burling and Mr Tuke started Live Ocean after sailing around the world about two years ago, and being shocked by the state of the ocean, Mr Taylor said.
The pair wanted to bring attention to how people were endangering the creatures of the sea and ourselves, and it seemed the video would help to play a part in that.
Mr Taylor said albatrosses were being caught by longlines, set by commercial fishing vessels, and if something was not done to help them, albatrosses could be extinct within two decades.
