Fishing ban could help save puffins

A ban on commercial fishing for sand eels could come into force next year to protect the food source Britain’s seabirds need to survive. The tiny fish are harvested, mainly by non-uk trawlers, to be made into feed for farmed salmon and livestock but birds, such as puffins, scoop up the sand eels to feed to their chicks. A consultation exercise was approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs after it received evidence that the industrial fishing of sand eels could be negatively affecting the populations of Britain’s endangered seabirds. While the move is likely to dismay some in the fishing industry, wildlife campaigners have welcomed a potential ban. A spokesman for the RSPB said: “A Uk-wide ban on industrial trawling for sand eels would be game-changing in our efforts to help save our threatened seabirds.”