In Scotland the white-tailed sea eagle was hunted to extinction, but was reintroduced to the islands off the west coast about 20 years ago. It is a conservation success story up here, and I see that the English are now wanting a piece of the action too. I have no objections to that - these eagles were once found all around the British coastline, so there's no reason why they shouldn't be reintroduced elsewhere - but it's the tone of the recent press release from English Nature that irritates me:

Reintroducing sea eagles represents a major opportunity to lead a high profile 'flagship species' project that will highlight the organisation at the forefront of a major biodiversity delivery initiative.

In other words, if you strip away the inane 'corporate-speak', the bottom line is that sea eagles can be exploited as a means of raising the profile of English Nature and ensuring valuable media coverage for the organisation. Jolly good. That should keep the well-paid men in suits in their jobs and the government backing in place, and as an added bonus the eagles may even benefit too.