Albatrosses will detect illegal fishing
A team of French scientists believe they can strike a blow against unlawful fishing by equipping albatrosses with hightech electronics capable of detecting vessels pillaging the ocean.
Under a system developed at the Centre of Biological Studies in Chize, western France, the scientists are using the seabirds as sentinels in a fight against illegal trawling in French waters in the vast southern Indian Ocean.
A total of 250 wandering albatrosses will be fitted with tiny electronic terminals weighing 60 grams to monitor fishing boats in the remote area and transmit information to officials via satellite.
Henri Weimerskirch, director of research at the centre, said boats making illegal catches of valuable Patagonian toothfish invariably turned off their automatic tracking systems to escape detection.
However, they normally keep their radars operational, and the kit carried by the albatrosses can detect radar signals from a distance of five kilometres. If there is no corresponding match with a transponder signal, a French Navy patrol can be despatched to investigate.
The devices will be glued to the birds’ backs by researchers working in the remote French Crozet and Kerguelen island chains and Amsterdam Island. When the battery life expires about a year later, they will be removed when the birds return to land to nest.
The programme takes advantage of the vast distances the birds cover: an albatross can travel 20,000km in two weeks, and they can detect a fishing vessel, to which they are drawn as a source of easy food, from 30km away.
Weimerskirch said the 250 albatrosses would be able to monitor the entire French Southern and Antarctic territories, an area bigger than France.
Cedric Marteau, the centre’s director, said unlicensed fishing boats, notably from Asia and South America, pillaged the zone to catch Patagonian toothfish. The slow-growing fish, also known as Chilean sea bass, sells for up to US$150 (NZ$230) a kilogram. Albatrosses are often killed by the longlines used by the trawlers.
Many vessels that fish in prohibited waters deliberately create confusion about their identities and nationalities. A report by the Environmental Justice Foundation says they try to escape detection by changing vessel names and flags, concealing ownership, or removing ships from registers.
Chinese-flagged vessels have often been suspected of breaching regulations. Others have been registered in Panama, Belize or Malaysia, but even when ships are tracked with GPS and satellite systems, catching them in the act and taking their owners and operators to court can prove difficult and costly.
– The Times, Daily Telegraph