Surfbirds News

The 2003 mortality included 179 Laysan and 176 Black-footed Albatrosses. Part of this increase is likely due to a 28% jump in the number of hooks set in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands fishery, where over 90% of the Alaskan longline seabird mortality occurs.

Laysan Albatross by Ashley Banwell from Surfbirds Galleries

Meanwhile, a group of 705 scientists from 83 countries, supported by 230 non-governmental organizations from 54 countries, has petitioned the United Nations to implement a moratorium on all longline fishing in the Pacific Ocean to prevent the extinction of the leatherback sea turtle. While ABC believes that seabird mortality can be mitigated without such measures, a ban would clearly also benefit albatrosses and other seabirds.

Of recent, growing concern to conservationists is the substantial mortality in the Alaskan trawl fishery. The federal government estimates that between 8,000 and 29,000 seabirds were killed in 2003, primarily in collisions with cables behind the boats. This includes 365-432 Laysan Albatrosses. The data indicate that seabird mortality in the Alaskan trawl fishery may exceed that of longlining, and needs to be aggressively addressed and mitigated.

On February 10, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to extend an existing ban on bottom trawling in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea to an additional 370,000 square miles of ocean around Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Though a major conservation victory, the ban is designed to protect coral beds and other sensitive marine habitat, and will likely not have a significant impact on seabird bycatch, as the bulk of the billion dollar bottom fish harvest occurs further out to sea.