Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_13 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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SEA SCIENCE Hope for Migratory Sea Birds By Cynthia Henderson Vega I -f, as Emily Dickinson wrote, "Hope is the thing with feathers," then migratory birds may represent the ultimate hope. Heeding nature's cyclical urging they take flight, sometimes traveling thousands of miles despite myriad natural and man- made adversities. For sea birds, these adversities include a particular danger — entanglement in fishing nets. The problem is significant, according to Walker Golder, ornithologist with the National Audubon Society in Wilmington. Just how many birds are affected in North Carolina is unknown, he says, because of lack of research here. But that could be changing thanks to the efforts of a commercial fisher and the N.C. Fishery Resource Grant Program (FRG). A few years ago Tommy Rose saw a dramatic increase in birds killed in his nets while fishing for shad in North Carolina's northern coastal region. His wife, Donna Rose, says a lot of local fishers talked about having the same problem. "The guys would be heart-broken," she says, at finding so many birds in their nets. The Roses' concern resulted in FRG funding to study bird bycatch during the shad season from January to mid-April, 2000. Disruption from Hurricane Floyd may have skewed those findings, so FRG awarded the Roses a second grant to cover next year's shad season as well.
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Fishing nets often entangle sea birds, such as this Forster's tern. fliohi h) H ii/icf Holder, \uduhort Society The Roses want to see if submerged nets will catch fewer birds than floating nets. Donna Rose says the study also might show peak times and conditions for fishing when birds would less likely be caught. Doug Forsell, fishery and wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Chesapeake Bay, found in a mid- Atlantic study that more than 2,000 birds were caught in gill nets from February through April 1998. Most (68 percent) were red-throated loons, followed by common loons (21 percent). Other birds included northern gannets, cormorants and red- breasted merganzers. Forsell says one problem is that birds begin their return northward as water warms, and fish follow the warm water. The coincidence puts fishing nets and birds in the same place at the same time. Lesser and greater scaup — ducks whose winter stays in Carolina coastal waters coincide with shad fishing season — are a declining species. While many scientists look for contaminants as a possible cause, Forsell says the role of fishing nets should also be studied. Scaup can be caught in nets when they dive for grasses and shellfish. Fish caught in nets may lure other birds. Merganzers race horizontally underwater in pursuit of fish — sometimes straight into fishing nets. Pelicans try to pull fish out of nets, Golder says, and can get heads or wings caught or even become snagged by bands placed on their legs for scientific studies. Loons are a particular concern, says Forsell. With legs set far back on a long, goose-sized body, the loon is almost comically awkward on land but is an expert diver — therefore vulnerable to fishing nets. Further studies might show ways to minimize that vulnerability. But ultimately, hope for migratory birds may come from those who use the waterways, recognize problems and work to find solutions. □ COASTWATCH 25

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