Seabirds are amazingly adapted to some of the harshest environments on earth, facing gales, huge seas and freezing temperatures. Some migrate vast distances, following currents and shoals of fish, or even plankton blooms. They fascinate us, and the more we discover the more we are intrigued by their strategies to survive and prosper. But one thing they cannot escape is our exploitation of the seas, and our thirst for fish to eat. And so it is many become entangled in nets, hooked on lines, or caught up in fishing gears which become ever more sophisticated in our search for fish stocks.
After years of advocacy by RSPB and BirdLife Europe, the European Commission has tackled a notorious blind spot in the way fisheries are regulated in EU waters. It has just proposed game-changing new legislation requiring all EU fishing vessels to take measures to stop the accidental catching of seabirds in their fishing gear.
The EU has been moving at glacial pace to do this compared with southern hemisphere countries like South Africa and Namibia which have already taken steps to curb the slaughter of tens of thousands of albatrosses by demanding that their fishing boats apply simple, tried and tested technical fixes to prevent birds getting entangled and killed on fishing hooks and in nets.
And it’s not as if the EU hasn’t had a serious case to answer. It’s estimated that every year at least 200,000 seabirds are accidentally caught and drowned in EU waters. This ranges from familiar species like guillemots and razorbills to the Balearic shearwater on the verge of extinction. Across European waters, gill-nets take the heaviest toll but longline fishing and purse seines are also culpable.
However, until last week the EU had not enacted any binding legislation to solve this problem. To be fair, the EU did adopt a Seabird Plan of Action in 2012 albeit after years of cajoling, but the plan is voluntary and only now has it been given the legislative teeth we’ve been asking for. And sharp teeth they are too – under the Commission’s proposal, vessels have to ensure that bycatches are not just reduced but ‘minimised and where possible eliminated such that they do not represent a threat to the conservation status of these species’. This is great news for our beleaguered seabird populations facing multiple threats from not just damaging fishing practices but also invasive island predators and diminishing prey fish as climate change distorts the marine food chain.
So how will the new EU legislation affect UK waters? Almost alone among EU Member States, the UK has taken the Seabird Action Plan seriously and we greatly welcome its ongoing work to map the risk of seabird bycatch from different fisheries in UK waters, so this gives us optimism. As the UK Government helps to shape fisheries plans for the North Sea and elsewhere, they will incorporate the necessary gear modifications, tailored to our vessels and the way they fish. Especially high priority must be given to ensure that, unless their gear is rendered seabird-friendly, vessels cannot enter Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and other Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for protecting seabirds.
In the bigger picture, however, the ambitious new rules proposed last week are a positive sign that the recently reformed Common Fisheries Policy is fulfilling its mandate to operate within safe environmental limits for seabirds and other marine life. Such a prospect was unimaginable just a few years ago. In the context of the upcoming UK referendum on EU membership, a new report by IEEP (Institute for European Environmental Policy) in collaboration with the RSPB and other NGOs concludes that the CFP is ‘slowly starting to steer in the right direction in terms of reducing the environmental burden imposed by industrial-scale fishing in the EU’. The Commission’s proposal for action to end the scourge of seabird bycatch is a prime example of this progress. But it’s not done and dusted yet: the legislation will now go to co-decision by the Council and European Parliament so we still have a long fight ahead to make it stick and throw our seabirds the lifeline they have been crying out for.