Radio Script
1999

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Fishermen Help the Albatross
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STORY: Seabirds are not far behind whenever fisherman Kevin O'Leary takes his fishing boat out of the small harbor in his hometown on Kodiak Island, Alaska.

Northern fulmars, seagulls and shearwaters hover over the stern, keeping pace with the boat's diesel engines. But increasingly, Kevin O'Leary and other fishermen are also keeping company with the short-tailed albatross. Amid the swarms of seabirds, Kevin O'Leary says short-tails are easy to recognize.

O'LEARY: "There's no mistaking these birds. Their beaks in proportion to the size of their heads are much larger than in other albatrosses. In fact, when short-tails mature they are 50 percent larger than other albatrosses. So once you've seen one, with that bright pink beak, you just don't mistake them. They are very distinctive animals."

They are also one of the most endangered seabirds in the world. Feather hunters in the early 1900s devastated the short-tail on their nesting grounds in Japan. With just over 1,000 of them left, scientists and conservationists are trying to help the bird recover.

Each summer, short-tails range as far north as Alaska's Bering Sea in search of food. But the short-tail's penchant for an easy meal could get both the birds and fishermen into a lot of trouble. Kim Rivera, seabird coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Juneau, Alaska, says seabirds see baited hooks as meals too tempting to pass up.

RIVERA: "If the gear doesn't sink immediately, they go after the bait. To them it looks like food. Of course, you can see the problem if they swallow bait attached to a hook. They become attached to the hook and taken down with the gear and drown."

Under the federal Endangered Species Act, Alaska's $650-million-dollar-a-year commercial hook-and-line fishery could be curtailed or--in the worst-case scenario--even shut down if fishermen catch too many short-tailed albatrosses. Fishermen are allowed to catch up to four short-tails in each two-year period. But to avoid catching them at all, the industry has asked for--and gotten--restrictions that require them to use fishing methods and techniques that deter seabirds from going after the bait.

Thorn Smith is widely credited with leading the effort to have new restrictions placed on commercial fishermen in Alaska. A fisherman himself, Smith is the executive director of the North Pacific Longline Association, a group of about 35 large vessels that catch and freeze their catch at sea.

SMITH: "We're trying to provide leadership in this issue. My members think this is the only reasonable approach to take."

Under the regulations, fishermen must use fast-sinking hooks, and discharge fish waste away from baited hooks. Fishermen must also fly streamers over their hooks or tow a buoy behind their boat to scare seabirds away.

But while fishermen have been subject to the regulations for just two years, their catch of short-tails has remained about the same at one or two each year. That's not good enough for Smith, who would like to see the catch reduced to zero.

In a study set to begin this summer, researchers will look at the techniques to see which ones work best. Sometime next year, regulators could mandate changes to further protect seabirds. With fishermen in Alaska catching around 14,000 seabirds each year, they hope that by avoiding the short-tailed albatross, they can reduce their catch of other seabirds as well.

OUTRO: From the Sea Grant Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, this is Doug Schneider with Arctic Science Journeys.