Government blasted for opening trapping season, closing an eye to Floriana bird black market

Friday, 20 October 2017, 11:37Last update: about 4 days ago

Birdlife Malta and the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) have blasted the government for opening another bird trapping season.

The season opened yesterday and will last until the end of the year.

BirdLife Malta was critical of the decision, noting that Malta was waiting for an imminent verdict in the European Court of Justice case against the derogation of finch trapping. “The trapping derogation was reinstated in 2014 without even being mentioned in any electoral manifesto and hence without an electoral mandate,” the organization said.

 “Trapping is prohibited across the EU and this was made clear even in ECJ Advocate General Eleanor V. E. Sharpston's Opinion delivered in July,” Birdlife said.

The opinion had found that Malta had no judicious cause to trap birds and questioned the level of enforcement and supervision.

“With almost 4,000 trappers allowed to set their nets on a daily basis, the probability of having the quotas reached and surpassed is high. This however will fail to materialise statistically since it is the trappers themselves that have to report their catches,” Birdlife said.

The organization also added that it had seen trapping taking place even before the season had opened.

CABS also slammed the government for opening the season, saying that “it seems that this government is willing to let Malta pay a high price to please a small group of trappers whose selfish hobby has destroyed bird populations, the maltese countryside and Malta´s reputation abroad.”

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Nearly 100 sea birds found dead on Albany beaches

Friday, 20 October 2017 3:44AM

More than 80 sea birds have washed up dead on Albany beaches, according to the Conservation Council of WA.

The flesh-footed shearwaters were found washed up dead on Goode and Fisheries Beech on the western side of King George Sound, south of Albany.

Conservation Council of WA Nic Dunlop said the kills may be caused by purse-seine fishing.

“The timing of this Shearwater kill is unusually early, but in every other respect fitted the now familiar pattern of these seabirds being drowned in the purse-seine nets used by the Albany-based South Coast Purse-seine Fishery,” Dr Dunlop said.

“The Flesh-footed Shearwater is a species that has recently shown a dramatic decline in all three of its populations. The species is known to be particularly susceptible as bycatch in a variety of commercial fisheries, to the ingestion of plastics, and to changes in marine climate.

Losing another eighty adult shearwaters from the local breeding population - in addition to around seventy earlier in the year - is a serious conservation issue.

“CCWA has attempted to work cooperatively with the Department of Fisheries to eliminate this problem from the fishery for more than a decade. There was an early reduction in bycatch from thousands to hundreds of individuals but no further progress since then.”

But WA Fishing Industry Council CEO John Harrison has denied that activities by the Albany-based South Coast Purse-seine Fishery are connected to the bird's deaths.

"The recent loss of shearwaters in the Albany region is concerning but WAFIC (based on advice from fishers) does not believe it is linked to purse seine fishing," Mr Harrison says.

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What soot-covered, hundred-year-old birds can tell us about saving the environment

Museum collections track soot in the atmosphere throughout the 20th century

Date:  October 9, 2017

Source:  Field Museum

Summary:

Birds in museum collections from Rust Belt cities around the turn of the century are covered with black soot from air pollution at the time. Scientists have compared the amount of soot on birds through the years to track environmental pollution over the last 135 years.

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Year-to-year volatility of penguin population requires new approaches to track marine health

Date:  October 11, 2017

Source:  Stony Brook University

Summary:

A study using data on Adélie penguin populations over the last 35 years has found that only a small fraction of year-to-year changes in Adélie penguin populations can be attributed to measureable factors such as changes in sea ice.

Read more  

Even modest oil exposure can harm coastal and marine birds

Date:  October 12, 2017

Source:  Wiley

Many birds and other wildlife die following an oil spill, but there are also other potential long-terms effects of oil exposure on animals. In a recent Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry study that examined blood samples from birds present in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and 2011 following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, even birds with small amounts of oil present on their feathers experienced problems related to their red blood cells.

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Helmeted hornbill, on verge of extinction, finds respite in new zone outside of known range

by Basten Gokkon on 23 October 2017

A recent survey has found a high concentration of near-extinct helmeted hornbills in a conservation area in western Borneo.

This “hornbill paradise” is currently not included in the IUCN range map for this particular species.

Conservationists have called for the map to be updated, for more research in the area, and for stronger law enforcement to protect the distinctive bird.

A conservation area in western Borneo holds an unexpectedly rich population of the helmeted hornbill, a bird driven close to extinction by poaching for its distinctive casqued beak, a field survey has found.

A research team from the conservation group Planet Indonesia recorded over 50 visual and audio detections of the hornbill during its yearlong survey in the protected area in northwestern Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo.

The discovery indicated a large concentration of the helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil), said Adam Miller, executive director of the NGO, in a statement.

While Borneo in general is known to be a habitat of the species, Miller pointed out that his team’s findings were the first to detect the bird’s presence in the protected region.

“When we found the helmeted hornbill … we could not believe it,” Miller wrote in a separate email. “We had not expected this rainforest to be so rich with hornbills.”

Stretching across 1,800 square kilometers (695 square miles) of forested area, the remote landscape covers three administrative districts and connects to a national park in Malaysia’s Sarawak state.

Other than the helmeted hornbill, Miller said, the region contains seven other hornbill species: the oriental pied hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris), the bushy-crested hornbill (Anorrhinus galeritus), the wreathed hornbill (Rhyticeros undulatus), the black hornbill (Anthracoceros malayanus), the white-crowned hornbill (Berenicornis comatus), the rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) and the wrinkled hornbill (Rhabdotorrhinus corrugatus).

“This landscape is indeed a hornbill paradise,” Miller said.

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Migratory bird sighted 'for first time in Tamil Nadu'

STAFF REPORTER

TIRUPUR, OCTOBER 19, 2017 20:11 IST

Common Stonechat comes from central Asia and Europe, and Western Marsh Harrier from western Eurasia and Africa.

Two migratory bird species, Eurasian Marsh Harrier (also called Western Marsh Harrier) and Common Stonechat, have been sighted by a group of bird watchers, reportedly for the first time, near the S. Periyapalayam irrigation tank in Tirupur, Tamil Nadu.

“Common Stonechat is sighted for the first time in Tamil Nadu if one goes by records compiled by ornithologists,” said K. Ravindran, a regular bird watcher at the S. Periyapalayam tank for a decade.

Mr. Ravindran, who is also the president of the Nature Society of Tirupur, said that Eurasian Marsh Harrier was seen elsewhere in Tamil Nadu. Common Stonechat comes from central Asia and Europe, and Western Marsh Harrier from western Eurasia and Africa.

The Nature Society of Tirupur attributes a few possible reasons for the sudden appearance of these two birds here.

“Either they may have lost their way to places they usually visit, or because of the disturbances happened to their earlier habitats,” said Mr. Ravindran.

Source