A Northern Gannet foraging (photo by A. Wilson)
The fisherman’s common practice of tossing unwanted fish overboard may soon be illegal in European waters. The discards are mainly young or damaged fish or other sea life that cannot be sold because there is no market for them. Other fish are thrown back because they would exceed the fishers’ catch quota were they taken back to shore. Most of these discarded fish and and other organisms are dead or dying when they are thrown back.
At first, a ban on this destructive practice seems like a fine idea. But some European researchers are concerned that, while many species would benefit from the ban, the Northern Gannet in particular might suffer. Northern Gannets, like many seabird species, often follow fishing vessels waiting for discards to be thrown overboard. The supplemental food is a boon to the Gannets especially during the demanding breeding season. The problem, the researchers say, is that rather than being an occasional supplement for many gannets, the discards may actually be a primary food source for a smaller population that has specialized on the waste fish. A sudden ban on discards, the scientists argue, could spell disaster for that subset of birds.
Current research is aimed at determining if there are indeed some gannets feeding almost exclusively on waste fish, and if so, what proportion of the population they represent. Knowing this, the researchers believe they can make recommendations on whether such a ban could safely be implemented immediately, or if it should be instituted gradually so that the specialist gannets could shift to other food sources.
SEANET will follow this story, and hopes that science can, in this instance, effectively inform policy for the good of the North Sea ecosystem. That would be the enlightened thing to do. Good luck Europe, and good luck gannets.
