Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Making fishing safer for birds

Birds are fond of fish, and industrial fishing has a nasty habit of snaring them with nets and lines. That shiny sardine hooked on a longline looks like dinner to an albatross. In the U.S., there are a number of programs meant to stop fishing boats from killing these 'protected species' and groups like WWF work around the globe on technological fixes that make fishing gear safer. Some fixes are easier than others, like hanging streamers off lines that act as scarecrows.

If this new FAO release is to be believed (and since it doesn't link to any underlying documentation, blogfish remains slightly skeptical) Chile has done a remarkable job, reducing the number of seabirds killed from 1600 to zero in only four years. Impressive. This due to a voluntary U.N. agreement called the International Plan of Action on Seabirds, or IPOA-Seabirds, for short. Now it's time to translate those improvements in hook and line fisheries to trawl and net fisheries.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

1600 to zero in 4 years that's amazing!

nitin said...

many species are killes by this speed even faster

Anonymous said...

Great speed, it's awesome!

Anonymous said...

This stuff is just part of life. Humans make so many different animals extinct it is sad :(.

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Alex Peter said...

Seabird’s death rate has decreased rapidly its amazing. Sea birds are more experienced of fishing now, that's the reason may be.
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Anonymous said...

Fishing can be performed safely for seabirds if the angler would use the right equipment. Having fished for 10+ years and have seen all the changes in fishing equipment and the proper way to dispose of used fishing line I know it can be done.

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