Fishery interactions
 Peter Ryan
This haul of dead seabirds is from one fishing trip by a single vessel
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The problem
The main cause of the decline of most albatross species is considered to be incidental mortality (or 'bycatch') in fisheries. Seabird bycatch occurs at high levels in longline fisheries, where albatrosses are vulnerable to baited hooks that remain at the surface for any length of time: albatrosses try to eat the bait from the hooks, are dragged underwater and drown. Albatrosses are also at risk from trawl fisheries, when they become entangled in nets and cables while attempting to feed on fish waste.
Vulnerability
Albatross populations are particularly vulnerable to bycatch because they are long-lived slow-maturing species. The large albatrosses breed only once in every two years, or at most twice in three years. They also form strong pair bonds for life, and if one of the pair is killed then the other will not breed again until another bond is formed (which may take several years). Together with delayed onset of breeding and only one egg laid in a clutch, the killing of only a few birds can have serious, long-term implications for the survival of the populations.
 Richard Cuthbert
Mitigation measures should help to keep albatrosses off the hook
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Solutions
- Mitigation measures have been developed which can reduce the incidental mortality of albatrosses to negligible levels. Many of these measures are relatively inexpensive to deploy. If all fishing vessels used mitigation measures, the threats to albatross populations would dramatically reduce.
- However, effective reduction of bycatch of seabirds, turtles, sharks and other vulnerable species requires action at a number of levels.
- Effective mitigation requires working with fishers to ensure that measures used in each fishery are effective and operable for each fishery.
- It also requires fishery management organisations to encourage or require the use of mitigation measures in their fisheries, and to collect data on bycatch and compliance.
- Effective mitigation is also aided by the recent developments in the international legal framework governing the oceans (such as the Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), FAO’s International Plan of Action (IPOA)-Seabirds, the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, and the UN Fish Stocks Agreement), which establish widely-accepted principles for sustainable use of the oceans.
BirdLife’s Global Seabird Programme is working at all these levels in order to try to reduce the threats to albatross populations.