{"id":3304,"date":"2019-03-05T14:53:56","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T12:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/birdlifecyprusnew.org\/?p=3304"},"modified":"2025-05-05T15:46:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T12:46:33","slug":"a-bird-ate-my-rod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/birdlifecyprus.org\/el\/a-bird-ate-my-rod\/","title":{"rendered":"A bird ate my rod"},"content":{"rendered":"
Although not an excuse for missing school, this is the reality for schools of marine mammals (e.g. dolphins), turtles and seabirds when they are tangled or even drowned in abandoned, lost, discarded or active fishing gear.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

For seabirds in particular, the effects of fishing can be manifold:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Overexploitation by fisheries can decrease the availability of prey for seabirds, which can result in lower survival and reproduction success in some seabird species,<\/li>
  2. Fisheries discards provide a new food resource for seabirds otherwise unavailable, which is very abundant and predictable in space and time, creating a strong dependency and ultimately the increase of some populations and species potentially leading to ecosystem imbalances, and;<\/li>
  3. Seabirds are caught in some fishing gears and may drown while trying to snatch the bait off longlines, when being entangled or collide with towed gears and hauling (trawls), or when they are entangled when diving in floating or set-nets. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Although these three effects are independent and have uneven impacts on seabirds, they are interrelated and interact in complex and unexpected ways ultimately threatening the populations of seabirds and other marine life. Entanglement in fishing gears can result in live or dead captures and often the fate of released birds is not known. Although interaction with fishing gears may not always result in injury or mortality, seabird interaction with fishing gears indicates their susceptibility to the gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Seabirds are dying because of #bycatch<\/a> and in horrifying numbers. Here we rescued this Caspian tern tangled in nylon nets, desperately trying to break free. EU boats, both inside & outside EU waters are causing this, and we need it to stop. Now. #OceanAlert<\/a> #Saveseabirds<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/V8t9qNrHab<\/a><\/p>— BirdLife Europe & Central Asia (@BirdLifeEurope) March 4, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote>