Thousand of sea birds killed by fishing trawlers

Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 6 Aug 08;

Thousands of sea birds are killed every year by fishing trawlers working in a Southern Hemisphere bird hot-spot, a new study reveals.

Many of the birds killed by boats operating in the Benguela Current, off South Africa are from endangered species - including the albatross.

Scientists monitored catches on 14 different trawlers fishing for hake and saw 30 birds die in 190 hours of observation.

The majority were albatrosses and most died in collisions with wires - known as warp lines - extending from the stern of the boats.

"We believe the seabird deaths the scientists recorded might be just the tip of the iceberg", said Dr John Croxall, chair of BirdLife's Global Seabird Programme. "

He added: "It suggests that around 18,000 seabirds may be killed annually in this fishery alone.

"Most mortality relates to the dumping of fishing waste behind the boat. This attracts seabirds which can either hit the warp lines or become entangled in the nets."

The birds killed during the study, published in the journal Animal Conservation, included South African breeding species such as Cape gannet, and species like the white-chinned petrel, sooty shearwater, and black-browed and shy albatrosses, which visit the Benguela Current region from nesting islands dotted around the Southern Ocean.

"The impact of this one local fishery has very widespread geographical repercussions", warned Dr Croxall. "Potential mortality at this scale for the albatrosses is unsustainable".

The black-browed albatross is listed by the IUCN Red List - the international inventory of threatened species - as endangered because numbers have fallen by two thirds in 65 years, while the shy albatross is considered to be near-threatened.

According to the RSPB, fisheries are the most significant threat to the world's 22 types of albatross - 18 of which are facing extinction - with an estimated 100,000 of the birds killed each year.

Birdlife said the best way to cut bird deaths was to improve waste management techniques and using devices protecting warp cables from bird strikes.