176 



D. R. CLINE, C. WENTWORTH, AND T. W. BARRY 



Flinders Island group. 



These muttonbirds are marketed as fresh or 

 salted "Tasmanian squab." Various by-prod- 

 ucts, including oil, body fat, and feathers, are 

 also sold. In 1968, a total of just under one- 

 half million young birds were taken. Prices to 

 the producers varied from $12 to $14 (Aus- 

 tralian dollars) per hundred salted birds and 

 $16 per hundred fresh birds. Stomach oil 

 brought 75 <t per gallon. Assuming the aver' 

 age price per hundred birds to be $14, the 

 meat alone was worth about $70,000 per year 

 to the producers. The retail value was of 

 course much higher. Although the muttonbird 

 harvest is no longer the mainstay of the 

 Flinders Island economy, according to Ser- 

 venty (1969) it is still a picturesque and impor- 

 tant annual social event. 



Serventy et al. (1971) believed the commer- 

 cialization of the muttonbird preserved its 

 numbers: "Had there been no vested interests 

 to preserve the 'birding islands' as such, 

 many of them would in the course of time 

 have been 'improved' as sheep stations and 

 the shearwater populations would have de- 

 clined and vanished." 



Sooty Terns 



The Caribbean is the home of the world's 

 most important wild egg producer the sooty 

 tern. In some years about 2 million sooty tern 

 eggs from the Seychelles and 0.6 million from 

 M or ant and Pedro bays have reached Carib- 

 bean markets (Tuck 1960). 



Eiders and Murres 



Although the shooting of birds is not as im- 

 portant economically to Greenland's approxi- 

 mately 50,000 residents as are sealing, whal- 

 ing, and fox hunting, the harvest of seabirds 

 is an ancient tradition that still means pro- 

 duction of an important food source that the 

 many Greenlanders could not exist without. 

 About 30 species of marine birds are har- 

 vested for human consumption, eider ducks 

 and murres being by far the most important. 

 In west Greenland about 750,000 birds 

 (equivalent to about 825 tons of meat) and 

 10,000 eggs are harvested annually. Murres 

 constitute the main dish in summer at small 

 coastal outposts with access to rookeries. 



Great quantities are also dried and salted for 

 use in winter. Murre canneries at Upernavik 

 have supplied southern cities with the frozen 

 meat of about 25,000 to 30,000 murres an- 

 nually. However, this commercial activity 

 would be prohibited by a proposed new Green- 

 land game law (Salomonsen 1970). 



Banding has shown that about 22% of 

 Greenland's eider population, or about 

 150,000 birds, is shot annually. Collecting of 

 eider eggs is now prohibited except in the 

 Thule District, where 10,000 are taken an- 

 nually. Eider down is still collected from nests 

 for sale to a trading company for the manufac- 

 ture of much demanded eider-down coverlets 

 (Salomonsen 1970). 



A growing human population, the wide- 

 spread use of modern firearms, and the in- 

 creasing use of speedboats in hunting have re- 

 sulted in serious declines in many of Green- 

 land's marine bird populations. The Green- 

 land government has demonstrated its con- 

 cern by instituting protective measures in re- 

 sponse to Danish expert advice. For example, 

 the common puffin (Fratercula arctica) was 

 given 10 years of total protection in 1961 after 

 bird numbers had seriously declined as a re- 

 sult of overharvesting of the birds and their 

 eggs (Lockley 1973). This protection was ex- 

 tended in 1970. Also, it is now illegal to dis- 

 charge firearms at most marine bird rookeries 

 in Greenland. 



With protection of bird habitats from hu- 

 man intrusion and toxic environmental pollu- 

 tants, adequate enforcement of sound conser- 

 vation laws, greater efforts in conservation 

 education, and scientific regulation of har- 

 vests, Greenland's valuable marine bird re- 

 source could probably withstand intensive 

 utilization indefinitely (F. Salomonsen, per- 

 sonal communication). Salomonsen has been 

 quick to point out, however, that people 

 should not be encouraged to believe that the 

 value of seabirds for food is the only reason 

 they should be saved. 



Although several species of marine birds 

 serve as sources of food in the Soviet Union, 

 down of eider ducks and eggs of murres are 

 considered to be the most important to the 

 economy. These birds are referred to as trade 

 birds due to their commercial importance 

 (Belopol'skii 1961). 



