Seabird mortality and the Falkland Islands trawling fleet

Specifically tasked seabird observers recorded seabird interactions during shooting, trawling and hauling operations for 157 days onboard finfish trawlers in the Falkland Islands in 2002/03. It is estimated that >1,500 seabirds, predominantly black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophris), were killed by finfish trawlers during this period. Significant levels of mortality were also recorded on the Patagonian Shelf, north of the Islands. Birds were killed after being dragged underwater by the warp cable, while feeding on factory discharge at the stern of the vessel. An unknown proportion of these birds become impaled on a splice in the cable, which was situated on average around 50-100m from the waters surface, and are subsequently hauled onboard. In over 600 observed hauls in 2001-03 no birds were observed to become impaled on splices during hauling operations