The World Fisheries Congress has been in Edinburgh these past few days. This is the first time the meeting has been held in Europe, so a feather in the cap for Scotland. This four yearly meeting of scientists, fisheries organisations, Government officials and related professions was passionately addressed by HRH The Prince of Wales, or the Duke of Rothesay as he is titled in Scotland, urging delegates to manage fisheries more sustainably.
The sustainable management of our seas and fish stocks was high on the agenda, and there is much to worry about as 70% of the globes fish stocks are over fished or on the way to being so. RSPB Scotland was delighted to co-host a reception with the Scottish Government for some of the delegates at the great hall of Edinburgh Castle-a truly impressive venue. The evening was kicked off in sparkling style by none other than First Minister the Rt Hon.Alex Salmond MSP who welcomed delegates to Scotland’s capital and he too stressed the need to protect marine wildlife, as well as the livelihoods of fishermen. He was well briefed about the plight of seabirds too. He was a hard act to follow to the lectern, but I survived the ordeal and hopefully did some good for the cause of marine conservation during my 5 minutes of fame.
Seabirds are a particularly special group of species around the UK. Our rich seas and rocky coasts and islands support some 60% of all the seabirds nesting in the EU. I have visited many of these seabird ‘cities’ on Shetland, Orkney and the St Kilda group and elsewhere. I never cease to marvel at the sight, smell and noise of the colonies. These days most of the nesting colonies are safe, protected by law and many are nature reserves such as the RSPB Scotland reserve at Fowlsheugh or the Mull of Galloway. But all is not well with our seabirds. Those species which depend on sandeels in particular appear to be in trouble. Sandeels are small oil rich fish that ‘swarm’ in shallow sea areas, and they attract huge numbers of seabirds and marine mammals. Auks like puffins and razorbills rely on them to feed their young. Arctic terns and kittiwakes feed on virtually nothing else during the summer months and so the fate of these birds is linked to the humble sandeel.
Photo: Chris Gomersall (RSPB-images.com)
The sandeels in turn feed on zooplankton, particularly tiny animals called copepods. However, as sea surface temperatures increase, the fatty, more nutritious cold water copepods that were once the mainstay of the sandeel diet are being replaced by less nutritious warm water species. This means that the sandeels themselves are less nutritious for the birds. On top of that, the overall amount of zooplankton has declined by a staggering 70% in the north-east Atlantic since the 1960s. This appears to be having serious effects further up the marine food chain. Kittiwakes have been among the hardest hit – experiencing declines of 30% in the last decade. This is also affecting Arctic skuas, who chase terns and kittiwakes to steal their food and so the skuas are declining too. Their numbers have more than halved since the mid 1980s.
I remember walking across the North Hill on Papa Westray – an RSPB reserve run with the island community on this lovely Orkney Island. There were tens of thousands of Arctic terns, dozens of pairs of Arctic skuas and fluffy youngsters everywhere. Today we are pleased if a 100 young terns fledge whereas then the young terns once numbered in thousands.
We are pressing the Scottish Government, UK Government and the EU to put sustainability at the heart of fisheries policy, and to take a precautionary approach when setting stock quotas. We are working with fishermen to find ways to reduce the impact of their gears on the sea bed and our seas. We desperately need to protect not only the colonies where our sea birds breed, but also those special ‘hot spots’ where they go to feed, to ensure there are enough small fish to satisfy them. In short we want the Governments of the UK to deliver the comprehensive network of Marine Protected Areas they promised at the World summit in Johannesburg in 2002 – they said they would do it by 2012!