An Albatross Dies Every Five Minutes
Once cursed with killing dolphins, tuna fishing is now being blamed for a shocking reduction in albatross numbers.
Long line fishing is being blamed for a startling drop in the number of albatrosses around the world. Fish, squid and other bait are trailed on hooks behind a trawler to catch tuna and swordfish.
However, because the hooks for these fish are set just below the surface it attracts albatrosses who think they’ve spotted a nice free meal and dive into the water to get it.
Instead they get hooked and tangled in the line, dragged under the water, and drowned. In many cases the bait has been dislodged meaning that hook will now catch nothing.
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The problem is by no means impossible to solve. One solution includes flying streamers above the hooks to try and deter the albatrosses from diving in.
Recent successes include an 85% reduction off South African waters and a near 100% reduction in the Southern Ocean.
BirdLife International is lobbying talks organised by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas to get counter measures such as the streamers made mandatory.
If they fail to save the albatross, then the grace and beauty of the world’s largest wingspan could soon go the way of the Dodo: killed by Man’s greed and stupidity.
Picture Credit: Wanderer chick with boat by tullis from flickr under Creative Commons Attribution License.
Solution:
Don’t eat tuna
Don’t buy tuna
Tuna itself is endangered and being pillaged, and other species are literally being taken down with it.
Had commented .. obviously got lost somewhere along the line.
Thank you Rebecca: absolutely, consumers need to ensure all their food choices are sustainable, so everyone switch to skipjack tuna just isn’t viable.
Another simple solution is for people to simply become localvores. If you ate just what was farmed/caught within your local area GHGs would drop dramatically and biodiversity would increase.
Not to mention the Great Pacific Plastic Gyre:
http://www.chrisjordan.com/
Is this a new technique of long line fishing? Why has it suddenly started happening??
If it is an old technique then there is something we don’t see and haven’t considered.
Bob: I think the reason it’s been thrown into sharp relief is because the banning of net trawling for tuna has lead to a massive increase in long-line fishing.