Massive Longline Arrays Biggest Threat To Biggest Seabirds - Oz Scientist Seeks Better Practices

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Hooked ... the world's largest seabird, the wandering albatross, is relieved of an eight-centimetre fish hook protruding through its bill, before being released off Tasmania. Photo: Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment

To save Australia's biggest seabirds, first go to the South Atlantic. Albatrosses, which breed on Australian islands, specifically Tasmanian islands in Bass Strait and the sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island, face greater peril off South America than they do at "home".

The challenge of saving these birds from drowning on fishing long lines was underscored dramatically in Tasmania recently, after birdwatchers caught a wandering albatross when they saw a hook jammed in its giant bill. State government seabird scientist Rachael Alderman said it appeared that, after the bird was hooked, it was cut free of the line and left to fend for itself, rather than drown.

Working with a vet, she was able to break the hook out of the beak and then set the bird free at sea near Eaglehawk Neck on the island's east coast. Wandering albatross, the largest seabirds in the world, circle the globe, and fish hooks are among their greatest threats, Birdlife International says.

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In the temperate South Atlantic, local and Asian distant water fishermen hunt tuna and swordfish, setting hundreds of thousands of hooks on their voyages. Streamer lines are being flown at the stern of fishing boats to scare albatrosses away and Dr Sullivan is experimenting with line weights to quickly drop the bait below the surface.

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http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/challenge-to-get-seabirds-off-the-hook-20100315-q928.html