Waved albatross in danger.
01/04/2007 00:00:00 October 2006. Research by scientists from Wake Forest University reveals that fishermen catch and kill around 1% of the world’s waved albatrosses every year.
Awkerman’s study reveals that the waved albatrosses are killed unintentionally when they are caught in fishing nets or on hooks, though some are also harvested for human consumption.
Awkerman worked with David Anderson, Wake Forest professor of biology. They have studied survival rates of waved albatrosses on Espanola (A Galapagos Island), located since 1999. Almost the entire world’s population of waved albatrosses nest and breed on Espanola.
23 waved albatrosses that were killed in 2005 had identification bands that were returned to the scientists by fishermen. A total of 2,550 albatrosses had been ringed, so nearly 1 out of every 100 birds is being killed by fishermen (assuming they were all returned).
Thirty seven major fishing communities were also surveyed to investigate albatross encounters with fisheries off the Peruvian coast. Observers went out on fishing boats to discover what occurs when fishermen encounter the albatrosses. They found that some albatrosses tangled in gill nets, and although some birds caught could be released, fishermen often killed them for food. The fishermen also caught some albatrosses on baited hooks.
82 % of all captures were males. That is especially troubling because albatrosses need both parents to successfully raise chicks. Having fewer males limits the number of breeding pairs, and for a species that relies on a lifespan of several decades to successfully reproduce even one offspring, the implications of their shortened lives are grim.
Communicating with the fishermen about the consequences of the death of each waved albatross is vital, said Awkerman. Discussions in Peru continue with both fishermen and government officials to address these conservation concerns. ‘Our study has already had a positive political effect, alerting the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Ministries of Environment of the problem occurring in their 2 countries, and they have recently had meetings to begin to deal with it,’ Anderson said.
Courtesy of Wake Forest University.
