SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC VALUES OF MARINE BIRDS 



175 



curred, entire species were sometimes totally 

 destroyed. This in fact happened to the great 

 auk (Pinguinus impennis). When Jacques Car- 

 tier visited the Funk Islands off Newfound- 

 land in May 1534, he and his crew filled 

 several barrels with great auks and salted 

 them down for future consumption. So severe 

 was the slaughter in the next 3 centuries that 

 the species became extinct in its known breed- 

 ing haunts, which originally extended from 

 Newfoundland through Greenland and Ice- 

 land, to the Hebrides. The last one was killed 

 at a stack rock off Iceland in 1884 (Lockley 

 1973). 



Other species have been almost totally de- 

 stroyed. Colonization of Bermuda by Spain in 

 the 17th century resulted in the near annihila- 

 tion of the Bermuda petrel (Pterodroma 

 cahow) there. Ships' crews found the birds to 

 be fat and delicious, and they dried and salted 

 those that could not be eaten fresh. Today, 

 only about 20 breeding pairs remain, and are 

 under strict protection by the Bermudan gov- 

 ernment (Lockley 1973). 



The North Pacific albatrosses (Diomedea 

 spp.) were nearly exterminated by Japanese 

 feather hunters near the end of the 18th cen- 

 tury. The short-tailed albatross (D. albatrus) 

 was also nearly wiped out at its breeding colo- 

 nies west of the Hawaiian Islands (Bourne 

 1972). 



Other species that were carelessly exploited 

 for their meat and plumage in the past, but 

 which have since regained their numbers, in- 

 clude the fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) on St. 

 Kilda Island in the North Atlantic; and the 

 North Atlantic, South African, and Aus- 

 tralian gannets (Moms bassanus, M. capen- 

 sis, and M. serrator) (Bourne 1972; Lockley 

 1973). In some instances entire breeding colo- 

 nies of a species have been destroyed while 

 others have survived. On the Abrothos Is- 

 lands in western Australia, for example, large 

 nesting colonies of sooty terns (Sterna fus- 

 cata) and common noddies (Anous stolidus) 

 appear to have been wiped out on Rat Island 

 by indiscriminate "egging" for food, whereas 

 similar-sized colonies survive on other islands, 

 where they are now controlled by the 

 Fisheries and Fauna Department (Serventy 

 et al. 1971). 



Historically, it has probably been man's un- 

 regulated harvest of marine birds that has 



been the primary cause of their destruction. 

 Generally, the loss of a species because of un- 

 regulated harvest is no longer a matter of ma- 

 jor concern, because most countries of the 

 world are providing at least some protection 

 for their marine birds. However, other factors 

 such as habitat destruction and contamina- 

 tion of the marine environment by industrial 

 pollutants are posing increasingly serious 

 threats to many. 



Social and Economic Indicators 



Economic indicators concerning consump- 

 tive uses of wildlife, including marine birds, 

 are frequently misunderstood. In a dollar- 

 oriented and overconsumptive society like 

 ours, economic values are usually seen as 

 being in conflict with esthetic values. "Eco- 

 nomic use" usually conjures up images of 

 man's overutilization and, hence, long-term 

 depletion of wildlife resources. However, 

 when speaking of economic use, it is impor- 

 tant to distinguish between such overuse and 

 sustained-yield management. 



Although both types of use have provided 

 economic benefits over the years, overharvest 

 that results in long-term resource depletion is 

 not usually the most or best economic use in 

 the long run; obviously a "harvest" cannot be 

 sustained at a given level when the resource 

 base is constantly being depleted. On the 

 other hand, when certain species of marine 

 birds are used in accordance with principles of 

 sustained yield, they can provide long-term 

 economic values to society in conjunction 

 with the social, esthetic, and intangible values 

 that their preservation insures. Of course, for 

 many species esthetic values far outweigh 

 economic ones derived through commer- 

 cialization. 



Commercial Uses 



Muttonbirds 



The muttonbird industry of Australia is an 

 excellent example of the commercial use of 

 marine birds on a sustained-yield basis. Fledg- 

 ling Tasmanian muttonbirds, or slender-billed 

 shearwaters (Puffinus tenuirostris), are com- 

 mercially harvested each year from their colo- 

 nies on islands of Bass Strait, mainly in the 



