Scholarly Article on Gulls and other Seabirds

Although the fact that gulls will eat just about anything seems apparent in the last blog post and the post on scavenging, to what extent will these birds hunt out food that at first glance appears disgusting, but could be an essential aspect of their diet? In the North Sea (the body of water between England and Norway) the fish production industry is a crucial part of a many of the sea birds and gulls’ diets found in the area. In the 1992 study by Garthe, Camphuysen and Furness, Amounts of discard by commercial fisheries and their significance as food for seabirds in the North Sea, examines the extent to which seabirds scavenge on fish discards and the effect of this on the birds and the environment.

The study operationally defined “fish discards” as fish that are either (1) too small for commercial sale, (2) below landing size, (3) species with no commercial demand or (4) caught in excess of quota. Amounts of these discards were obtained from previous data. In addition to this, researchers calculated the proportion of waste consumed by birds from experimental discard studies. These findings hypothesized 5.9 million individual birds in the average scavenger community. Findings also estimate industrial fish companies in the North Sea produce roughly 790,000 tons of fish discards each year. The study also estimated sea birds consume 310,000 tons of these discards (almost 40%). This incredible amount of consumption highlights the importance of the mutually beneficial relationship between the sea birds and the fishing industry.

However, because the amount of fish discards is so high, there is a call to action to decrease the amount of waste. One attempt to change this amount of waste was in 2008 by the Conservationists. By making it illegal to throw back any fish that was not alive, this movement would significantly decrease many animals’ diets, causing a decrease in survivability of gulls and other sea birds living at the North Sea. So which is worse? Fish waste or decreasing the sea birds’ diet? That is up to you!

References

Garthe, S., Camphuysen, K. C. J., & Furness, R. W. (1996). Amounts of discards by commercial fisheries and their significance as food for seabirds in the North Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 136(1-3), 1-11.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gull

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3464077/Tories-pledge-to-end-scandalous-waste-of-fish-thrown-back-into-sea.html