Albatrosses off the hook in the nick of time

Hope as legislation forces fishing nations to take action

November 2011: Accidentally snagged on longline fishing hooks and then left to drown, the albatross populations in the South Atlantic are among the fastest-declining in the world.

But a new resolution brokered and ratified at the ICCAT (The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) meeting in Istanbul earlier this month is giving hope to these beleaguered birds as Atlantic tuna and swordfish fishing nations will have to ensure vessels take preventative action to avoid accidentally catching these birds.

Worryingly fast decline in numbersOne third of the world's albatrosses nest on the South Atlantic UK Overseas Territories: the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha. ICCAT manages all tuna and swordfish fisheries in the Atlantic outside territorial waters. These measures will significantly reduce the number of birds being killed.

At the ICCAT meeting, the seabird measure was jointly proposed by the EU, Brazil, South Africa and Uruguay, as well as the UK on behalf of its overseas territories.

Dr Cleo Small, representing the RSPB and BirdLife International, attended the meeting. Speaking from Turkey on the meeting's outcome, she said: ‘This offers significant hope to the protection of these iconic UK birds, whose population declines are among the fastest of any seabird species worldwide. We now have an agreement that all boats working in the open waters of the South Atlantic will have to adopt at least two measures to avoid catching seabirds.'

Great news for other seabirds too'This is great news for albatrosses and other seabirds, many of which die needlessly every minute of the day; the accidental casualties in the tuna and swordfish fisheries.'

The new legislation requires all longline vessels fishing south of latitude 25 degrees S - roughly Brazil to Namibia - to use two out of three measures to reduce bycatch, from a choice of bird streamer (tori) lines, setting lines at night, or adding weight to their baited hooks.

The UK's overseas territories host one third of the world's population of albatross and they have more than half of the population of the Southern Ocean. The South Atlantic has seven species of albatross which nest regularly, and six of these are considered to be facing extinction and overlap with the tuna and swordfish fishing fleets: wandering albatross; sooty albatross; grey-headed albatross; Tristan albatross; black-browed albatross; and Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross.

 http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/albatross-bycatch.html