Archived News

A special issue of the open-access electronic journal Avian Conservation and Ecology entitled Quantifying Human-related Mortality of Birds in Canada contains two papers of interest for the conservation of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels

Joanne Ellis and colleagues examine two marine-based industries that incidentally take migratory birds in Canada: commercial fisheries through bycatch, and offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production.  They conclude that “[f]isheries bycatch was responsible for the highest levels of incidental take of migratory bird species; estimated combined take in the longline, gillnet, and bottom otter trawl fisheries within the Atlantic, including the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Pacific regions was 2679 to 45,586 birds per year.”

Anna Calvert and colleagues in the special issue’s synthesis paper state that Canadian marine commercial fisheries may kill annually relatively large proportions of Canadian populations of several seabird species, notably 4% of Black-footed Albatrosses Phoebastria nigripes.  However, this should be placed in context as they state that "[c]ombined, cat predation and collisions with windows, vehicles, and transmission lines caused >95% of all mortality; the highest industrial causes of mortality were the electrical power and agriculture sectors.  Other mortality sources such as fisheries bycatch can have important local or species-specific impacts, but are relatively small at a national scale." Overall "marine fisheries bycatch had one of the lowest total mortality estimates nation-wide, ...". 

Black-footed Albatross at sea, photographed by Aleks Terauds

With thanks to Ken Morgan for information.

References:

Calvert, A,M., Bishop, C.A., Elliot, R.D., Krebs, E.A., Kydd, T.M., Machtans, C.S. &. Robertson, G.J. 2013. A synthesis of human-related avian mortality in Canada.  Avian Conservation and Ecology 8(2): 11.

Ellis, J.I., Wilhelm, S.I., Hedd, A., Fraser, G.S., Robertson, G.J., Rail, J.-F., Fowler, M. & Morgan, K.H. 2013.  Mortality of migratory birds from marine commercial fisheries and offshore oil and gas production in Canada.  Avian Conservation and Ecology 8(2): 4. 

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 2 November 2013, updated 04 November 2013