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A guanay cormorant is entangled in fishing line and floats helpless and without the possibility to move at the surface. |
Marine wildlife is not only affected by overfishing and marine contamination like oil-spills. Up to a million marine birds and more than a hundred thousand marine mammals (30,000 of them sea lions) die every year worldwide because of ingestion of plastic particles, being mistaken for food. Sea turtles are known to eat floating plastic bags, which they mistake for jelly fish.
Old floating fishing gear and plastic parts may capture marine animals and strangulate them. Finally hundreds of thousands of birds and marine mammals end up dead in active fishing gear as so called bycatch – a non intended and incidental catch of these specimen. Small scale driftnets and longline fisheries are extremely dangerous for dolphins, penguins and marine birds.
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Mundo Azul volunteers have covered the birds head with a towel in order to calm down the animal and are slowly untangling it. |
The scale of this threat is still unknown in many areas of the world. Documenting such cases and rescuing marine animals encountered alive has become an important part of Mundo Azuls marine field trips.
In January 2007 for example, while researching dolphins off the coast of Peru, Mundo Azul Volunteers encountered two Guanay cormorants getting caught accidentally in long-line fishing gear. In this case one Guanay cormorant was floating at the surface, being entirely tied into the fishing line. Another Guanay cormorant was caught in the same fishing line and had a fishing hook in his right wing. Both animals where hauled on board Mundo Azuls boat, freed from the fishing line and released.
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Untangling a Guanay cormorant from fishing line |
The fact of two birds being caught in the same fishing line in a distance of only 20 meters from each other shows that long line fishing for demersal fish species by artisan fishermen may be reason for a massive annual death toll in marine birds along the Peruvian coastline. While there is research going on about the death of Albatross species in the off-shore longline fisheries off Peru, the death of guano birds in near coastal artisan long lines so far has not been monitored permanently in its dimension and has not been subject to conservation concerns.
Financing such marine monitoring and rescue patrols is expensive. Support our marine rescue patrols with your donation to the following bank account: