By Shaun Hurrell, Fri, 07/11/2014 - 12:09
Following a meeting with the BirdLife’s Albatross Task Force, The Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources in Namibia has introduced new fishery regulations which should practically eliminate seabird mortality from one of the most destructive fisheries in the world.
This is more excellent news for the Albatross Task Force (ATF) who have been working with the Ministry in Namibia since 2008, and have demonstrated that the combined levels of seabird mortality for their hake longline and trawl fisheries is around 30,000 seabirds per year, which is one of the highest levels in the world.
The ATF have demonstrated that adoption of simple and cost-effective mitigation measures in both these fisheries could reduce mortality to negligible levels.
Incidental bycatch in fisheries constitutes the major threat for many vulnerable populations of seabirds. Globally 300,000 seabirds are killed in longline and trawl fisheries each year where they are hooked and drown on baited hooks or are struck by trawl cables and dragged under water. Approximately 100,000 of these birds are albatross, the most threatened family of birds with 15 of 22 species at risk of extinction.
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