For the past three summers, the RSPB has become increasingly concerned about razorbill and guillemot deaths reportedly caused by the birds drowning in fishing nets set for salmon and sea trout in Filey Bay, North Yorkshire.
If left unchecked, this has the potential to be a huge conservation issue, particularly considering the dying birds are most likely coming from the nearby, internationally important RSPB Bempton Cliffs seabird colony, so in early 2008 we engaged in discussions with Natural England and the Environment Agency (EA), who license the fishery.
Encouragingly, a threshold system was adopted whereby when a certain number of birds were being caught per week, a voluntary ban would come into force and fishing would stop for 14 days. The fishermen at Filey, who in total operate six licensed nets, all agreed to report seabird bycatch to a co-ordinator employed by the EA.
Faced with concerns of cruelty and that the true level of bycatch was not being fully reported, RSPB Investigations undertook covert evidence gathering at Filey on 13 and 17 June 2008. Investigations Officer Mark Thomas takes up the account of what he uncovered.
“It was a cold, grey 4 am dawn. The smell of yesterday’s fish and chips spiralled around the seafront in the onshore breeze, while a single dog walker cut a lonely figure on the beach.
Binoculars slowly lifted to the eyes brought a truth to last night’s dreams. There, barely offshore, was a thin, snaking line marking the top of an otherwise invisible fishing net below the water. Either side of this line, I could make out numerous black objects floating on the surface. Each object lifted gracefully every few seconds with the incoming waves.
In detail, there was nothing at all graceful about these blobs. They were the sharp, pointed wingtips of dead razorbills, which only a matter of hours before had been at their nests on Yorkshire’s highest sea cliffs.
In their lifetime, they had survived the worst nature could throw at them, including storm-force seas and food shortages. On the cliffs, their appealing antics had been admired by thousands of visitors and holidaymakers from afar - some so inspired by these little birds that they became lifelong supporters of conservation.
What a totally pointless and avoidable way to die, trapped in a nylon net left unattended overnight. On this scale, I find 'bycatch' is too short a word and sadly slips off the tongue far too easily to reflect its true implication."
Similarly, three days later, continuing observations from a hidden location on the seafront revealed large numbers of live birds struggling to avoid drowning within the same net just off the beach. We believe the fishermen could easily have released the birds earlier, but instead they chose to collect their haul of fish and return to the shore, ignoring up to 40 birds floundering for several hours.
During the two days, over 100 auks were recorded caught in the net, mostly razorbills. Significantly, at this time of year it is highly likely that the drowned birds were part of breeding pairs in the local area and that their nests and chicks are likley to have also died as a consequence, making this a conservation as well as a welfare problem.
The video evidence was immediately shown to the Environment Agency and Natural England, who jointly agreed that fishing activity should be suspended at Filey for 14 days.
When fishing resumed, it was operated under a stricter regime in which nets were not set overnight - this, together with the fact that most of the birds had by now completed their breeding and had headed out to open sea, resulted in much lower numbers of birds being caught accidentally.
We also sent the footage to North Yorkshire Police. As a result of this, a fishermen was charged with causing unnecessary suffering to seabirds, mainly razorbills, on the dates on which evidence was gathered.
Unfortunately, the case had to be discontinued by the Crown Prosecution Service (after much consultation with both the RSPB and RSPCA) when it became apparent that the Animal Welfare Act 2006 does not apply to incidents taking place offshore.
It is important to make it clear that we are not trying to stop the fishery, but that we, like many others, believe it is unacceptable that hundreds of seabirds are dying avoidable deaths in these nets every year.
We are calling on the Environment Agency to introduce better practices and a new bylaw to underpin this with enforcement action. Simply preventing nets being left out at night and instigating a short period of closure during the peak ‘bycatch’ period could prevent the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of birds.
We await the 2009 season with fear and hope but most of all determination - determination to make it work for everybody, including the fishermen and of course the birds.