Fishing ‘kills 300,000 seabirds a year’

MORE than 300,000 seabirds are killed every year in the world’s longline fisheries, the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity in Aberdeen will be told today.

Research by scientists from the RSPB and BirdLife International has shown that, despite stricter controls in many parts of the world, fishing is continuing to devastate seabird populations.

Since the 1980s, scientists have linked global declines of albatross and other seabird populations with the birds becoming “incidental catches” in longline fisheries. Adult and juvenile birds can become snared on hooks attached to the lines, which can be more than 100 miles long, dragging them underwater to a premature death.

Almost 1,000 delegates are at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference centre for the event.