E. BRUN 



Table 10. Population increase of the gannet (Sula bassana) in Norway (cf. Fig. 5). 



Discussion 



Impact of Human Activity 



Direct Exploitation 



According to Norwegian laws, all seabirds, 

 with the exception (for some odd reason) of 

 the gannet and fulmar, can be hunted from 21 

 August to 1 March. However, only the two 

 species of murre and the razorbill are still 

 regularly hunted and, although no statistics 

 support it, an estimate based on interviews 

 with some of the hunters reveals that murres 

 and razorbills are shot in the ratio of about 

 50:1. One man can shoot as many as 380 

 murres and razorbills during a winter season 

 as a sideline to fishing. Although not many 

 hunt on this scale, an absolute minimum of 

 5,000 murres and razorbills are killed this way 

 each season. 



A new law based on modern principles of 

 conservation has been under consideration for 

 several years, and this will mean an improve- 

 ment. However, the speed of the decline of the 

 auks, particularly the murres, makes it im- 

 perative to stop this hunting immediately, 

 and it is of very little economic importance to 

 the few who take part. Some illegal "fishing" 

 for auks still takes place at R0st and Vaer0y, 

 where fishnets are anchored over wooden 

 frames outside the auk colonies at the begin- 

 ning of the nesting season. At Ved0y on R0st 

 in 1972, up to 80 murres were taken daily. 

 Thus an estimated total of 500-700 murres 

 were taken that year about 5% of the breed- 

 ing population on this island. 



Egg collecting was important during World 

 War II, but in these more affluent times and 

 because of the relative inaccessibility of the 



Table 11. Comparison of annual growth 

 rate and breeding success in two colonies 

 ofgannets (Sula bassana). 



Mosken 



Nordmjele 



Annual Breeding Annual Breeding 



growth success growth success 



rate (%) rate (%) 



auks' nests, egg collecting is now both less at- 

 tractive and less important. Human dis- 

 turbance of the breeding colonies, however, is 

 gradually becoming a more serious factor. 



Fishing Gear 



Although on a scale different from that in 

 western Greenland, drift-net and longline fish- 

 ing for Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) outside 

 the 19-km (12-mile) limit off the northern Nor- 

 wegian coast present a serious mortality 

 hazard to some seabirds. Reliable data exist 

 only for the longline fisheries. In the 1969 sea- 

 son (with 75 effective days from mid-March to 

 mid-June), one boat using 1,040 hooks per day 

 caught 294 birds: 52 fulmars, 3 gannets, 43 

 kittiwakes, 107 murres, and 89 puffins. No 

 razorbills were identified, but they may have 

 been included in the murre figure. If this 

 sample is representative, the 100 or so Nor- 

 wegian boats using longlines plus about 20 



