Posted on: 14 Sep 2014
A major trawl fishery in Argentina has agreed to start using devices to scare birds away from long-line fishing equipment.
The widely-used equipment has been causing the accidental deaths of thousands of individuals of species such as the globally Near-Threatened Black-browed Albatross. This is great news for seabirds and the Albatross Task Force, who have successfully proven that bird-scaring lines would almost eliminate seabird mortality in the fishery.
The formal decision will positively affect the fate of thousands of albatrosses every year, and was announced by the Argentinean delegates at an international meeting of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatross and Petrels (ACAP) in Uruguay. The resolution received unanimous approval by the Federal Fisheries Council, so over the next six months fishermen on the industrial vessels of the Argentinean factory trawl fleet will be casting bird-scaring lines as well as fishing nets off the back of their boats. If needed, they will refine the bird-scaring line designs to minimise any operational concerns for the crew before the measures become obligatory in the fishery.
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