The best estimate is that two million seabirds have died in the last ten years after being caught in the lines and nets in European Waters.
The lines and nets are intended to catch fish. Fishing vessels pay out hundreds of miles of line and the birds eat the baited hooks. Or they get caught in the miles of nets as the birds swim and dive to catch fish.
The European Union wants to put an action plan into operation to cut the numbers of bird deaths. The problem that the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea highlights, is the lack of data.
The best estimate of the number of deaths in the last 10 years is 2,000,000 or two hundred thousand per year, or 550 per day.
I suggest that a legislation be enacted quickly and throughout the EU whereby a compulsory observation plan is put in place with cameras put in a sample of boats, large and small, to monitor when lines are hauled in.
The cameras should be linked by satellite so that they can record birds as they are brought on board.
Just do it.
