As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 8 May 2014

$200 to reduce albatross deaths by 95%


A $200 device that can be fitted to trawlers has been demonstrated to reduce albatross by-catch deaths by 95% and scientists are now calling for the devices to be made mandatory. The bird scarring lines also reduce by-catch deaths of other birds by between 73% and 95% during the winter months.

A research paper published in Animal Conservation show how successful a simple bird-scaring line attached to trawlers can be to prevent birds from becoming entangled in nets and cables. The study used data collected from trawl fisheries in the South African deep-water hake trawl fishery.

In 2004, 9300 birds died in the fishery including 7,200 albatrosses. The researchers then studied the by-catch of trawlers fitted with the single deterrent of bird-scaring lines during the years 2006 – 2010. If the fitting of bird-scarring lines were mandatory the research estimated that 990 sea birds would have been killed with 83 albatrosses killed.

No comments:

Post a Comment