New research shows that European leaders have the power to save Europe's most threatened seabird -- the Balearic shearwater -- by making one simple switch: setting the fishing lines at night when the critically endangered Balearic shearwater doesn't dive for food.
If the fishing lines are set at night, then Europe's most endangered seabird doesn't run the risk of being entangled by the nets -- a driving force that has the seabird "on the road to extinction" with fewer than 30,000 birds left in the wild (and 3,200 breeding pairs) declining roughly 14% a year.
If politicians do nothing, then, at the current rate, the Balearic shearwater will go extinct in 60 years.
Fortunately, European politicians can tackle this major threat by making the simple switch. As the co-author of the new study, Professor Tim Guilford of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, explains, "The science shows just how serious the problem is, but also that there is a technically simple solution - the setting of demersal long-lines at night."
Sign and share this petition urging European lawmakers to make the switch to survival that will save Europe's most threatened seabird from extinction.
Photo credit: Marcabrera
New research shows that European leaders have the power to save Europe's most threatened seabird -- the Balearic shearwater -- by making one simple switch: setting the fishing lines at night when the critically endangered Balearic shearwater doesn't dive for food.
If the fishing lines are set at night, then Europe's most endangered seabird doesn't run the risk of being entangled by the nets -- a driving force that has the seabird "on the road to extinction" with fewer than 30,000 birds left in the wild (and 3,200 breeding pairs) declining roughly 14% a year.
If politicians do nothing, then, at the current rate, the Balearic shearwater will go extinct in 60 years.
Fortunately, European politicians can tackle this major threat by making the simple switch. As the co-author of the new study, Professor Tim Guilford of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, explains, "The science shows just how serious the problem is, but also that there is a technically simple solution - the setting of demersal long-lines at night."
Sign and share this petition urging European lawmakers to make the switch to survival that will save Europe's most threatened seabird from extinction. -----
Sadly, according to the
IUCN Red List, the critically endangered seabird has many other threats to worry about:
-- Predation by introduced carnivores like cats, martens and genets
-- Light pollution
-- Pollution events, e.g. oil spills
-- Other fishing equipment, e.g. purse-seiners and trawlers
-- Reduction of prey because of fishing overexploitation
-- Habitat degradation and disturbance in their breeding grounds
-- Background pollution
-- Development of marine windfarms
-- Human harvesting
