Video on saving albatrosses from by-catch

The BirdLife Marine Programme has released an instructional video for fisherman on how to avoid albatross by-catch, with lots of great seabird footage.

The programme works to reduce seabird by-catch in high seas fisheries, and may be familiar to readers who have followed its efforts to save several albatross species from extinction.

BirdLife has succeeded in encouraging all five Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs — the bodies that manage high seas fisheries) which specialise in tuna to put seabird conservation measures in place, which require vessels to deploy by-catch mitigation onboard. BirdLife say that the next task is to ensure these measures are actively implemented on vessels, and to track their effect in reducing seabird by-catch.

Thanks to funding from the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, BirdLife have developed an instructional film for the skippers and crew of long-line vessels, which highlights the issue of seabird by-catch. It describes the simple and effective measures that can be taken to minimise fishing impacts on seabird populations. While it is mainly aimed at the fishermen themselves, it is also full of great albatross footage and neatly illustrates how to solve the problem of by-catch in long-liners — good viewing for birders, too!

The film's introduction clearly shows the threats albatrosses are faced with, and why these incredible species have declined so dramatically. It serves as an important reminder of the urgency of BirdLife's crucial work.