A new Animal Conservation article summarizing 4 years of study found that a device called the Hookpod can help prevent birds from being inadvertently caught by fishermen.
A new Animal Conservation article summarizing 4 years of study found that a device called the Hookpod can help prevent birds from being inadvertently caught by fishermen.
Investigators note that 15 of 22 albatross species are threatened with extinction, and a major threat to these birds is death through interactions with pelagic longline fishing. At-sea trials conducted in three continents demonstrated that hookpods reduced seabird bycatch effectively, with bycatch rates of 0.8 seabirds per 1000 hooks on control lines and only 0.04 birds per 1000 hooks on Hookpod lines. “Hookpods had no negative effects on fishing success,” said lead author Dr. Benedict Sullivan, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, in the UK.
Additional Information
Link to Study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acv.12388/full
About Journal
Animal Conservation provides a forum for rapid publication of novel, peer-reviewed research into the conservation of animal species and their habitats. The focus is on rigorous quantitative studies of an empirical or theoretical nature, which may relate to populations, species or communities and their conservation. The journal publishes single-species papers only when they have clear broader implications for conservation of other species or systems. A central theme is to publish important new ideas of broad interest and with findings that advance the scientific basis of conservation.
Penny Smith
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