Japan accused over albatross deaths

JAPAN'S "fraudulent" southern bluefin tuna fishers have allegedly hidden another cost of their overfishing — the deaths of thousands of albatross.

As other fisheries sharply reduce their seabird mortality, Japanese bluefin long-liners admit to killing up to 9000 Southern Ocean seabirds a year, most of them albatross, on long-line hooks.

But with Japan found to be taking up to three times its quota in a $2 billion tuna scandal, this greatly increased catch means the real albatross death toll is likely to be much higher, Humane Society International said yesterday.

Albatrosses are possibly the most threatened group of birds in the world, with all but one of the 24 species listed as endangered or vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.

Many species range cross the most intensively fished bluefin waters, off South Africa and south-east Australia, including the only species to breed in temperate Australia, the shy albatross. It nests on islands around Tasmania and was found to be a regular victim of Japanese tuna longlines in pioneering work on the long-running problem.

Australian Fisheries Management Authority chief executive Richard McLoughlin has described Japan's overfishing of southern bluefin tuna as an outrageous international fraud.

Humane Society International program manager Nicola Beynon said the number of seabirds known to have been killed by bluefin fishing was horrifying.

"Bearing in mind the illegal effort in this fishery, we can only assume that the actual number of albatross killed is even higher than has been declared by Japan," she said.

In recent years, groups such as the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources have tried to reduce albatross deaths, which occur when the birds plunge after attractive fish bait and are hooked. The commission has used streamer poles, setting lines at night, line weighting and a strict observer system to reduce its seabird by-catch by 99 per cent in six years in its legal fisheries, though illegal fishing in the Antarctic is still believed to kill large numbers of birds.

The organisation's scientific committee said at its last meeting that there was much concern about the bluefin mortality, which could exceed 13,500 seabirds.

The Canberra-based Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna requires only that all tuna boats use streamer poles at their rear to discourage seabirds.

Japan has refused to join the international Agreement on the Conservation of Albatross and Petrels.

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