World Wildlife Fund

More than six million seabirds breed in the Bering Sea and hundreds of thousands are killed each year by fishing hooks and nets
© WWF-Canon / Kevin SCHAFER

Around the world, longline fishing kills hundreds of thousands of seabirds each year when they become entangled in driftnets and ensnared on longline hooks when they dive for bait. In 2004, WWF achieved major success with its international project aimed at reducing this threat in the western Bering Sea.

The Bering Sea is one of the most productive seas in the world. More than six million seabirds breed there. On the western side, gulls, cormorants, puffins, fulmars, terns and many other species use the Russian mainland and islands to nest. But more than a third of these nesting areas are close to zones where driftnet and longline fishing occurs. Bycatch is a real threat.

In Alaska, scientists and fishermen have designed simple, inexpensive and easy-to-use devices, like 'streamers', that frighten birds away from baited fishing lines. In Alaska, these measures have, in some cases, reduced bycatch by 80 to 100 percent.

In an effort to mirror this success in the western Bering Sea WWF and its partners are adapting Alaskan methods in Russia. Members of the Alaskan longline fleet are also helping. Thorn Smith of the North Pacific Longliners Association has supported WWF's efforts, and contributed the costs and coordination of a Russian-language albatross guide, now being distributed in Russia.

Retired fishermen and scientists joined a WWF-sponsored trip to Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok in May 2004, to meet with their Russian counterparts. For Russian fishermen, hearing a conservation message delivered by a fellow fisherman was an unusual but welcome event. The visit caught the attention of the managing director of Kamchatka's largest longline fishing company and he became a supporter of WWF's pilot project, allowing observers on board his vessels to conduct experiments with streamers and another device in an attempt to reduce the chance of seabird depredation of bait.

Russia's fishing and wildlife conservation regulations are different from those in the U.S., so there is less motivation there to take conservation action. However, one motivating factor that does generate a response is economics. An economic assessment of the cost of bait loss incurred due to seabirds attacking baited hooks pointed to significant losses over a five-year period.

WWF's Kamchatka field coordinator Andrey Yablochkov called fishermen together in a seminar in early 2004, in which participants discussed the results of the analysis and the availability of streamers through WWF's pilot project. The combination of financial savings and a readily-available solution persuaded a number of fishermen to work with WWF.

Currently WWF works with three Russian companies and envision several successful projects that will further demonstrate the results and help us meet our goal of implementing the best conservation practices possible to protect seabird populations and promote sustainable fishing in the Bering Sea.