196 



W. B. KING, R. G. B. BROWN, AND G. A. SANGER 



Numbers of alcids are caught in nets set for 

 Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) around the 

 coasts of Ireland and Scotland (Biddy 1971). 

 A similar situation exists along the west 

 Greenland coast, although it is overshadowed 

 there by the direct exploitation of huge num- 

 bers of alcids by hunting. Nonetheless, in 

 1967 for example, 15,000 alcids were re- 

 covered from fish nets in southwestern Green- 

 land, where they were sold as food (Evans and 

 Water ston 1976). The annual salmon catch of 

 the west Greenland inshore fishery has fluc- 

 tuated between 60 and 1,500 metric tons and 

 has averaged about 1,000 tons. There are no 

 data comparing the relative catch of birds and 

 fish in this fishery. 



Atlantic cod follow the spawning capelin 

 (Mallotus villosus) inshore along the east 

 coast of Newfoundland in late June and early 

 July. They are traditionally fished with traps 

 and handlines along this coast, but there has 

 been a recent trend toward using drift nets set 

 on the bottom. Since alcids feed extensively 

 on capelin at this time, many are caught in the 

 cod nets set in areas close to the large colonies 

 off Witless Bay (D. N. Nettleship, personal 

 communication). Additionally, gill nets are 

 set at the surface for salmon in the same area. 

 Common murres (Uria aalge) are most af- 

 fected, but Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arc- 

 tica) are also taken. 



There are as yet no estimates of the total al- 

 cid mortality from this fishery, although the 

 annual catch of birds is believed to be smaller 

 during the present than during the last 

 decade because the fishing effort is reduced, 

 and fishermen in the area now avoid setting 

 nets near alcid concentrations because of the 

 annoyance of having to remove the birds from 

 their nets. The Witless Bay colonies contain 

 over 77,000 pairs of common murres, or 11% 

 of the total eastern North American popula- 

 tion, and over 235,000 pairs of Atlantic 

 puffins, or 71% of the North American popu- 

 lation outside of Greenland (Brown et al. 

 1975). The potential danger is obvious. 



There are few data on mortality of seabirds 

 from inshore commercial fisheries in the 

 North Pacific. Some mortality of alcids has 

 been shown to take place in Cook Inlet, 

 Alaska, from beach-netting for Pacific salmon 

 (Oncorhynchus spp.) adjacent to seabird 

 rookeries and from drift-netting in the inlet 



(D. A. Snarski, personal communication), but 

 this mortality has not been quantified. 



Bilateral agreements between the United 

 States and Japan, the U.S.S.R. and the Re- 

 public of Korea, concerning the use of inshore 

 waters adjacent to some of the Aleutian Is- 

 lands, Kodiak, Nunivak, St. Matthew, St. 

 George, Kayak, and Forrester Islands permit 

 trawling, longlining, and loading fish and fuel 

 in some of these areas and at certain periods. 

 Although these activities may affect the sea- 

 birds of these areas, the extent of the effects 

 are not known (U.S. Department of the Inte- 

 rior, Alaska Planning Group 1974). Murie 

 (1959) indicated, however, that the disappear- 

 ance of the ancient murrelet (Synthliboram- 

 phus antiquus) from Sanak Island, Gulf of 

 Alaska, was probably due as much to fisheries 

 as to the blue fox industry. It has been sug- 

 gested that the Japanese murrelet (Synthli- 

 boramphus wumizusumi) may have declined 

 as the result of fishing activities near breed- 

 ing sites off the coast of Japan (Bourne 1971). 



Atlantic Offshore 

 Gill-net Fishery 



In 1965, Denmark began an offshore gill-net 

 fishery for Atlantic salmon in the Davis 

 Strait off the coast of west Greenland. The 

 offshore fishery catch increased from 36 

 metric tons in 1965 to more than 1,200 metric 

 tons in 1969, and then gradually decreased. 



The fact that large numbers of seabirds al- 

 most entirely thick-billed murres (Uria lom- 

 via) were being drowned in the salmon gill 

 nets was brought to the attention of the Inter- 

 national Council for Bird Preservation at its 

 15th World Conference in 1970. The Council's 

 recommendation was submitted to the Danish 

 government and stated: "... having noted 

 that during the 1969 fishing season about 

 250,000 individuals of Brunnich's guillemot 

 or thick -billed murre (Uria lomvia) a pelagic 

 diving bird, were caught in these drift nets 

 and drowned, which number represents no 

 less than 25 percent of the Greenland popula- 

 tion and exceeds its annual reproductive 

 capacity; urges the Danish Government, and 

 the national governments of all other coun- 

 tries involved in this fishing, to take all pos- 

 sible measures to eliminate this very serious 

 problem." 



