Almost 200,000 seabirds die every year in European waters after coming into contact with fishing gears, according to a new study.
A new study has revealed that an estimated 195,000 seabirds die every year in European waters after getting hooked by or entangled in fishing gears.
According to the new scientific paper co-authored by BirdLife and partners including the RSPB, these deaths, known as bycatch, frequently involve six seabird species threatened by extinction in the region.
And while the reported extent of these deaths is already shocking, it is suggested the true figure could be far higher. Bycatch data were non-existent for more than a third of the European coastal states and available estimates rarely included the entirety of a country’s fishing fleet.
Seabirds are one of the most threatened groups of birds in Europe with more than a third of the species suffering from population declines. Across the UK, the most recent census of breeding seabird populations found 62% of species are in decline. That figure rises to 70% in Scotland.
Alongside the risks posed by fishing gears, seabird populations are being impacted by a range of other human-induced pressures. Overfishing, climate change, bird flu, badly planned offshore development and insufficient biosecurity measures to protect seabird islands are all playing a part.
The highest levels of seabird bycatch are reported in gillnets in the Baltic Sea and the Northeast Atlantic (>95,000 birds/year) and longlines in the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean (>80,000 birds/year).
Nearly 36,000 seabirds/year are estimated to be bycaught by the Gran Sol longline fishery for hake that operates off the coast of Scotland down to southwest Ireland and France. The majority of the vessels operating in this fishery are flagged to the UK, France and Spain.
Worryingly, the headline figure from this study doesn’t tell the full story. Available bycatch information is often opportunistic in nature, inconsistent or outdated. The absence of long-term and systematic data collection systems results in large knowledge gaps, yet anecdotal evidence indicates that seabird bycatch is occurring in areas in which data is currently lacking.
There is a need for governments to establish appropriate monitoring systems to address data gaps and improve available information on bycatch, however, this shouldn’t detract from the priority of applying measures to reduce seabird bycatch in areas and fishing gear that are already known to be problematic.
Although the risk of becoming bycatch is one of the greatest threats facing seabirds, we already have solutions to help keep them safe from fishing gear. In many cases, relatively simple changes to fishing practices or modifications to fishing gear can significantly reduce the number of birds that end up as bycatch.
The RSPB, which hosts the BirdLife Marine Programme, has been at the forefront of seabird bycatch mitigation efforts globally. In the southern hemisphere, 20 years of our Albatross Task Force working in some of the world’s deadliest fisheries for seabirds has proven that solutions exist, with some fisheries in South-Africa or Namibia achieving more than a 98% bycatch reduction. With real commitment from local governments and the fishing industry, this can be achieved in European waters too.
