South American fishermen help to save seabirds

[Judi Lynn]

South American fishermen help to save seabirds
15-07-2009

South America is blessed with one of the world's most charismatic birds - one which sadly is in danger of disappearing forever. "Modern fishing methods are accidentally killing around 100,000 albatrosses globally every year - that's one every five minutes", said Dr Ben Sullivan - BirdLife's Global Seabird Programme Coordinator. However, South American fishermen are working alongside BirdLife staff to help save their favourite of birds, and early results of their united efforts are capturing global attention.

"We love to watch albatrosses when we're out at sea", said Jorge Rivera Vergara, captain of the longline vessel Tami II of fishing company Pesquera Omega in Coquimbo, Chile. "It's amazing to think these birds fly round the world for thousands of miles without landing and have wingspan of over three meters".

Sadly, 18 of the world's 22 albatross species are facing extinction, with four of those species being classified as Critically Endangered according to BirdLife on behalf of the IUCN. In longline fisheries albatrosses die when they try to steal fish bait from hooks; in trawl fisheries they are killed when they birds collide with the fishing gear whilst trying to collect discarded fish.

"The good news is that we have some simple and cost-effective measures that fishermen are increasingly using which are saving the lives of thousands of albatrosses in South America", said Dr Esteban Frere of BirdLife's Global Seabird Programme. Where the simple measures are being used, the results in South America are impressive. For example:

• In the south of Chile, the incidental capture of seabirds was reduced from over 1,500 birds in one year to zero through the adoption of modified fishing gear
  
• In Argentina the use of mitigation in the trawl fishery has shown that it is possible to reduce seabird mortality to close to zero
  
• In Brazil the voluntary adoption of simple bird-scaring lines has helped reduce incidental capture of seabirds by 56%
  

http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2009/07/atf_callingcard.html