Dr Euan Dunn is the Senior Marine Policy Officer at the RSPB. Read Albatross-related RSPB press releases here.

Question

Why does this petition only target 'pirate' fishing? Long-lining by
legal fishing concerns is equally detrimental to birds. Also, the
solutions proposed by BirdLife, such as using a sub-surface deploying
mechanism, may be fine for discouraging birds, but it still doesn't
solve the problem of the other well-known statistic I didn't see on
their website: That 95% of all long-lining catches are non-target
species. So it's not just birds, but fish, marine mammals, turtles,
etc., who are equally at risk.

I'll sign their petition but I think the emphasis on 'pirate' fishing
only vis-a-vis long-lining is tilting at windmills. Pirate fishing,
regardless of gear, is already an actionable and enforceable offense
(as long as the offended nations have the will to prosecute, and most
of them don't bother, hence the Greenpeaces and Sea Shepherds of the
world). Long-lines should be outlawed altogether, but getting the
commercial fishing industry to change its gear is where the real fight
is.

Guess I was just wondering why BirdLife is taking aim solely at the
'pirates' and not at the gear that is used by legals and illegals
alike.

Dr Euan Dunn's Response

This raises some fair points - let me try and answer them.

• For long-lining, pirate fishing is certainly one of the key drivers
  of albatross mortality, the other being high-seas tuna longlining,
  especially by the Asian fleets. Since a lot of pirate fishing occurs in
  EEZs, it's a more tractable problem than high seas fishing, so there is
  a pragmatic reason for tackling it as a standalone issue.

• If we put pirate fishers out of business, we will certainly improve
  the by-catch situation for marine biota other than seabirds. In
  campaigning, it is reasonable to be somewhat pragmatic about how to
  change things. If we can't attract attention through charismatic
  species like wandering albatross, we won't attract attention to the
  wider bycatch issues. Sea turtles are also charismatic but it's fair to
  say that they don't engage the public imagination quite as easily as
  albatrosses. Fish are only just beginning to become iconic at all.

• I would disagree that we should outlaw longlines altogether. The
  danger is of displacing effort into a still more damaging method (which
  is why the major reduction of fishing effort overall, whether by
  longlining or anything else, is one of the single most important
  challenges to global fisheries in general; slashing fishing effort
  would, at a stroke, relieve pressure on a whole raft of environmental
  impacts). So which other 'gear' would you suggest? As a case in point,
  arguably the moratorium on high seas drift-netting shifted effort into
  longlining as an alternative method, and while the latter does have
  problems, they are much easier to mitigate than the problems caused by
  deploying a drift net. There is on average probably a
  lot less fish bycatch in longline fisheries than trawls though admittedly
  there are still problems to be solved, like the bycatch of cartilaginous
  fishes in CCAMLR waters. In the Falklands, albatross mortality in trawl
  warps is emerging as potentially as serious a problem as longline bycatch.
  Clearly the challenge its to try and come up with mitigation measures for
  longlines that minimise by-catch of all biota.

• In CCAMLR, the application of an effective suite of mitigation
  measures has reduced the by-catch of birds by legally licensed vessels
  to sustainable levels and in many best-practice cases virtually
  eliminated the bird by-catch altogether. As another example (which I am
  still checking out) it is claimed that night fishing has resulted in
  zero seabird deaths in the Australian Southern and Western Tuna and
  Billfish fishery this year.

• BirdLife is putting a great deal of effort into gear mitigation, and
  involving the fishermen in becoming part of the solution. If they don't
  buy in, they wont comply. So our Spanish BirdLife Partner
  (SEO/BirdLife)has organised a highly successful competition of ideas to
  mitigate longline by-catch, with a substantial cash prize (put up by
  the Bank of Galicia) for the winner. Apart from receiving over 80
  entries, many with highly innovative ideas (the best of which will need
  to be field tested), the competition has caught the imagination of the
  Spanish longline fishing industry and thus raised awareness enormously.
  We have also put observers aboard Norwegian longliners
  to get first hand knowledge of the bycatch problem and to make
  recommendations for their solution. We sit down and discuss these with the
  Norwegian government and it makes a difference.

• Lastly, John Ridgway is working independently of any particular NGO
  and is not getting any sponsorship for example. He himself identified
  pirate fishing as a bite-sized chunk of the problem he was prepared to
  chew at, and would have mounted a charge against it whether or not
  anyone outside helped him. But he sought the help of NGOs (not just
  BirdLife) in getting his message out. In that sense, although the
  petition started on Forest & Bird's
  website, no-one 'owns' it and we are encouraging others, whether they are
  environmental NGOs or not, to post it on their websites too. This problem
  is
  bigger than any one NGO's profile and it will take a concerted effort to
  crack it.

Thanks for signing the petition, even though you had concerns. I hope
this helps to assuage some of them.

Question

The alternative to sea-bird friendly fishing seems to be dolphin unfriendly if nets must be used instead of long lines.

Is this correct?

Dr Euan Dunn's Response

Thanks for your interesting question. It's not quite as simple a switch as you suggest, however. Widespread use of longlining evolved partly as a result of a UN worldwide ban in 1982 on the use of high-seas drift nets used for tuna fishing. These nets (you may recall the media catchphrase 'walls of death' at the time) were a major cause of the deaths of dolphins and other marine mammals (inluding sperm whales in the Mediterranean), also turtles and birds. So even if vessels wanted to return to drift nets, they would be prevented by law from doing so.



As we have always said, there are simple technical fixes to longlining which virtually eliminate seabird bycatch or at least reduce it to acceptable levels. Well managed longline fisheries are already operating in certain parts of the world with negligible seabird bycatch. The challenge is to get these adopted by the world's longline fleets. It is much harder to tweak drift nets to achieve the same level of safeguard.



The other challenge of course, is to stamp out the pirate vessels which, as fish poachers, have no interest in adapting their gear to conserve fish stocks, seabirds or dolphins. All they are interested is in profit and not paying to become part of a legal, licensed fishery. In their case, the challenge is not to try and persaude them to alter their fishing practices but to put them and their criminal activity out of business altogether.



I hope this goes some way towards resolving the apparent 'Hobson's Choice' you identified but get back to me if you need any more clarification.

Selected Comments from Petition Signees

It is diabolical that this is still going on. I offer my full support in any strong objection to this practice, and pledge that I will not purchase any fish caught by this method.

Dear Sir, After spending a most wonderful day off the coast of New Zealand with the whales, dolphins and albatrosses it seems callous and shameful that anyone can dismiss the death of an animal or bird as a mere side effect of human activity, in this case fishing, legal or otherwise. I have signed the petition and regret I can only sign once.

Back to the Contents page