Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Seabird study

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Copied below is some information on an ongoing study of seabird bycatch in commercial fisheries. This is included in every Fishery Notice posting

Now, not that we are cynical or anything, but armed with the knowledge of the commercial fleet's decades old code of silence on steelhead bycatch, does anyone in DFO or the study group really think commercial fishermen will add to their current woes by providing truthful information on seabird bycatch??

Why would fishers drive yet another nail into their own fast dwindling fishing opportunity coffin by giving numbers of seabirds killed? Just doesnt make sense at all and it probably wont take long to realize that without independant observers in the fleets whatever info is provided should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Environment Canada (EC) is monitoring seabird by-catch to determine potential
impact on bird populations under current fishing effort and bird numbers. (A)
Fishers are requested to submit all dead birds entangled in nets to EC for
species confirmation and DNA analysis to determine the colony of origin. Please
call your local charter patrol to organize pick-up, drop carcasses off at a
local DFO office, or contact EC directly by calling the EC reporting line 1-866-
431-2473. Label birds with date, time, location and vessel name (Skipper name
isn't needed). Handle birds with gloves, double bag dead birds, store on ice.
(B) EC is seeking volunteers to help map overlap in bird activity with fishing
locations during the 2010 season. Vessels will be outfitted with battery-
powered SPOT GPS units. The skipper will activate their unit while at sea;
coordinates of the vessel will be transmitted to a data server every 10-
minutes. Data will be accessible to only the EC Project Coordinator and
Skipper. Resultant data will delineate high overlap areas. This will be related
to locations of radio-tagged Rhinoceros Auklets. In an emergency, SPOT units
can activate an SOS signal which is communicated to Search and Rescue.
Interested skippers should contact Laurie Wilson (laurie.wilson@ec.gc.ca, 604-
862-8817).

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