Seabird albatross often pay the price for its meal in the high sea by being drowned, injured or killed going after baited hooks. As the number of albatross is decreasing on the seas fishing fleets have decided to take some steps to prevent hooking of albatross and other seabirds.
NOAA administrator Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher said that the conservation of seabird will require nations with longline fishing fleets to work together to adapt their fishing practices to prevent seabirds hooking. The fishing fleets have taken measure which include using streamer lines to haze birds away from the stern of boats as miles of baited hooks are being set and dying bait blue to conceal it in dark water and the measures will go into effect this year in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
According to NOAA albatross are vulnerable to being hooked on longlines used to catch tuna, swordfish and other ocean fish. Albatross cross international waters in search for food and that makes it imperative that the community of nations with longline fishing fleets abide by certain practices.
Kim Rivera, national seabird coordinator for NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska region office in Juneau, informed that the measures agreed on by several commissions that govern high-seas fishing require fleets from more than 30 nations to use certain practices to avoid killing the birds. He added that these practices can be varied depending upon what works best and where.
Rivera said that certain techniques could be used for tuna and swordfish in the Atlantic include fishing at night when birds are less active, weighting fishing lines so the baited hooks sink more quickly and using long streamers. According to Rivera the commission has been very successful in preventing the hooking of several types of albatross in the Antarctic. Now NOAA is looking into whether similar measures are needed off the Washington and Oregon coasts.
