Commercial fishing threatens survival of albatross, conservationists warn

Scientists call for new measures to protect the seabirds as experts warn one albatross drowns every five minutes after becoming entangled in fishing gear
Press Association, guardian.co.uk 9 Nov 09;

Albatrosses and other birds are facing extinction as they become tangled in commercial fishing gear, conservation organisations warned today.

Thirty-seven species of seabird are at risk and 18 of these species, including albatrosses, are under threat of extinction, the RSPB and BirdLife International warned.

The birds take bait from hooks, get caught in the fishing lines and drown.

The conservation groups are calling for action as scientists gather for fisheries talks in Recife, Brazil, today to agree on quotas for the Atlantic and Mediterranean stocks of tuna and swordfish.

The RSPB and BirdLife International will urge the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to agree measures to protect these birds in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

Albatross expert Dr Cleo Small said: "Dying at a rate of around one every five minutes, the albatross family is becoming threatened faster than any other family of birds. The wandering albatross – possessing the largest wingspan of any bird – is rapidly declining on South Georgia, and links have been made between these declining populations and longline fishing. This situation is needless because the technology exists to prevent these deaths.

"We will be urging delegates to approve rules that make it mandatory for all vessels fishing for tuna and swordfish in the Atlantic to abide by simple measures which lower the risk of albatrosses and other seabirds dying."

Small added: "The main problem is that albatrosses try to steal fish and squid bait from longline fishing hooks.

"The birds get caught on the hook and quickly drown when the lines are set. The bodies of these birds, recovered hours later, are a grim reminder of the sheer toll of seabirds that these fisheries can take."

Monitoring of wandering albatrosses by the British Antarctic Survey on South Georgia has revealed a halving in the number in 2009 compared with the early 1960s. The most at-risk species include the Tristan albatross of the South Atlantic and the Balearic shearwater of European waters.

Both species, which are listed as critically endangered by BirdLife, are important to the UK.

The Balearic shearwater, which nests on the Balearic islands of the Mediterranean, is a regular non-breeding visitor to the waters off southern Britain, while the Tristan albatross is endemic to Gough Island, part of the UK overseas territory of Tristan da Cunha, and is found nowhere else in the world.