The Albatross Task Force

Albatrosses are stunning, long-lived seabirds that spend much of their lives soaring over the ocean. Inevitably, this lifestyle brings them into contact with fishing vessels. Sadly, they’re often accidentally captured in fishing gear (known as bycatch), and this is driving population declines: 15 of the 22 albatross species are now threatened with extinction.

Albatrosses mainly feed on squid and fish on the surface of the water, so foraging for bait or discarded fish around fishing vessels mirrors their natural behaviour. Sadly, for many it's their last meal.

Trawl vessels discard offal (fish heads and guts) as they process their catch. This attracts albatrosses, which can smell this free meal from 12 miles (20 km) away, bringing them dangerously close to the trawl cables towing the net through the water. As they engage in a feeding frenzy behind the vessel, they can be fatally struck by these cables and dragged under by them.

Albatrosses and other seabirds also scavenge on baited hooks set by longline vessels. This bait is used to target larger fish species, but as it takes some time to sink to its fishing depth, scavenging albatrosses can attack the baits, get caught on the hooks and, ultimately, drown.

Simple and inexpensive activities, known as bycatch “mitigation measures” are highly effective in preventing these unintentional deaths in trawl and longline fisheries:

• Bird scaring lines
  Bird-scaring lines (also known as tori lines) are lines with colourful streamers that can be towed behind fishing vessels to scare birds away from baited hooks or trawl cables.
• Night setting
  Fishing at night can significantly reduce seabird bycatch, since most seabird species don’t actively forage in the dark.
• Line weighting
  Adding weights to longlines makes baited hooks sink faster. This reduces the window of opportunity for foraging seabirds to attack the baits and get caught.

Researching new mitigation measures

As well as encouraging fleets to follow these “best practice” mitigation measures, we’re also working with our target fleets to develop new mitigation measures, and troubleshoot problems with existing measures.

Download the Towards Seabird-Safe Fisheries (13 MB) leaflet for more information.

The ATF forms part of the BirdLife International Marine Programme, which is hosted by the RSPB. Find out more about the wider work of the programme on: https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/programmes/marine

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