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Mortality of seabirds in high-seas salmon gillnets

January 1, 1981

Since 1952, the Japanese have operated a large salmon driftnet fishery in the northern North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. This fishery is divided into two components: the high-seas mothership fleet, which consists of several processing ships and their numerous, smaller catcher boats that remain at sea during the entire fishing season, and the land-based fleet, which consists of independent fishing boats that catch and store their own fish and return to Japan at more frequent intervals (Sanger 1976; Fredin et al. 2 ). A similar fishery in the North Atlantic between 1965 and 1976 was responsible for the deaths of large numbers of the thick-billed murre, Uria lomvia, and significant reductions in its breeding populations (Tull et al. 1972). Recent work in the North Pacific and Bering Sea by Sana (1978) and King et al. (1979) indicated that large numbers of seabirds are killed annually in the Japanese salmon fishery also.

Publication Year 1981
Title Mortality of seabirds in high-seas salmon gillnets
Authors D. G. Ainley, A.R. DeGange, L.L. Jones, R.J. Beach
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Fishery Bulletin
Index ID 70162200
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Western Fisheries Research Center
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