In the 1990s, the endangered status of the short-tailed albatross catalyzed efforts to reduce the number of birds accidentally killed as bycatch in Alaska, home to the country’s biggest fisheries. Marine fisheries scientist , at Washington Sea Grant at the 91±¬ÁĎ, and research associate Kim Dietrich, an independent contractor, were at the forefront of a collaborative research effort that led to Alaska’s longline fisheries adopting streamer lines in 2002, a technology that is towed behind vessels to create a visual barrier that keeps seabirds away from the baited hooks below.

In a new published Jan. 28 in the journal Conservation Biology, Melvin, Dietrich and partners from Oregon State University and the Alaska Fisheries Science Center show that in the time since they were adopted, streamer lines have had an extraordinary impact: seabird bycatch in Alaska’s longline fisheries has been reduced by 77 to 90 percent, saving thousands of birds per year including hundreds of albatrosses.

Melvin said much of this success is thanks to the fishing industry’s active involvement when the team was researching methods to avoid seabird bycatch two decades ago.

“It’s really to the industry’s credit that they were fully engaged in the research and started implementing streamer lines two to three years before they became mandatory,” Melvin said. “The fishermen owned the solution from start to finish.”

The solution also involved training fisheries observers to properly identify seabirds in order to record vessel bycatch. “The data they were able to collect over decades allowed us to monitor and estimate bycatch rates and track the success of this effort,” said co-author Shannon Fitzgerald, a fisheries scientist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

The researchers arrived at their results by analyzing 23 years’ worth of this meticulously collected fisheries observer data. While they found that bycatch rates remain much lower than the pre-streamer line days, more recently the number of birds hooked has been increasing.

“We have seen a continued increase in seabird bycatch, especially albatross, in Alaskan longline fisheries, with one of the recent years after our study the highest since 2002,” said co-author Rob Suryan, a wildlife specialist at Oregon State University and research ecologist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

In parsing out this trend, the researchers realized that bycatch significantly varied by both fishery and type of bird. The three species of highest conservation concern – the albatrosses – were more likely to be snared by a sablefish or halibut vessel than one that fishes cod. Other bird species, however, were more likely to be hooked by boats that fish for turbot, a type of flatfish.

The researchers looked into the success of other methods of bycatch reduction as well. Fishing at night, when many seabirds are less active, is a tactic commonly used elsewhere in the world. They found that fishing at night dramatically decreased bycatch rates of albatrosses while increasing the fish catch rates of Alaska’s longline fleets – however, it also increased the accidental capture of northern fulmars by 40 percent.

While northern fulmars are not a species of conservation concern, the possibility of accidentally catching more of these seabirds certainly presents an unwelcome tradeoff. Melvin added that many fisheries operate in the summer, when Alaska’s high latitude makes for very short nights; requiring night fishing could hurt the industry by substantially cutting down on the available fishing time.

Importantly, the scientists found that in recent years fewer than 2 percent of the 300 vessels they analyzed accounted for 46 to 78 percent of the bycatch. The authors said it is not clear why these particular boats caught so many birds. Perhaps they encountered unusually aggressive birds that were unable to locate natural prey, or perhaps they represent a newer generation of fishermen who do not feel the same urgency around seabird conservation because they were not working when the issue was first raised.

Whatever the reason, it suggests it’s possible that resource managers don’t need to rethink their entire seabird bycatch strategy. Targeting the few vessels with anomalously high bycatch rates with outreach about the proper use of streamer lines could prove to be enough.

This study was funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

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For more information, contact Melvin at edmelvin@uw.edu or 206-543-9968.

Twenty years of work on sea and land to save threatened seabirds from becoming fishing bycatch have won national recognition for Washington Sea Grant’s senior fisheries scientist, , also an affiliate associate professor in the 91±¬ÁĎ’s . The research project he leads, which develops, tests and promotes bird-scaring streamer lines for long-line fishing vessels, this week received the  It went to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Seabird Program, which funds some of Melvin’s research.

Melvin has designed a system using streamers to scare off seabirds that loiter around fishing vessels. The streamers are made of bright orange tubing and hang suspended above the bait lines from lines attached to the mast or other tallest point on a boat. ( of how streamers work)

Melvin, research scientist Troy Guy and other collaborators began by adapting the developed by Japanese fishermen in the 1980s to the conditions facing Pacific Coast long-line fleets. In 1999 they took this strategy to Alaska and proved that paired streamer lines can dramatically reduce, even eliminate, seabird bycatch.

In 2009 Melvin and team traveled farther afield to work with the Japanese tuna fleet off South Africa. After testing multiple streamer and weighted long-line combinations, they found a configuration that, together with setting baited lines at night, eliminated seabird bycatch with virtually no impact on crew labor or fish catches.

In 2012, the committee overseeing the international Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels endorsed these measures for all long-line tuna fisheries that encounter these birds. Three of four international tuna commissions adopted parts of them. The branchline design used was developed by fishing master Kazuhiro Yamazaki and won the World Wildlife Fund’s 2011 Smart Gear Award.

Melvin and Guy returned home to adapt what they’d learned in Alaska to the West Coast’s groundfish fleets, starting with tribal fisheries. Through exacting analysis of fishing and habitat ranges, they and their colleagues determined that the sablefish fishery overlapped most with, and thus presented the greatest threat to, the magnificent but endangered short-tailed albatross. Working closely with fishermen partners, they tested and refined their streamer lines for the complex range of boat sizes and gear configurations used on the West Coast.

Their findings led NOAA Fisheries to begin the process of requiring long-line boats 55 feet or longer to deploy streamer lines when they pursue West Coast groundfish; they’re now testing measures for smaller boats. NOAA provides the lines for free through select West Coast marine-supply dealers.

Washington Sea Grant shares the presidential award with NOAA’s West Coast Region and Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Oregon State University, California Sea Grant, Oregon Sea Grant, the Makah, Quinault, and Quileute tribes, and other agencies and industry groups. To read more, visit the

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For more information, contact Melvin at edmelvin@uw.edu and 206-543-9968 or MaryAnn Wagner, Washington Sea Grant communications, at maryannb@uw.edu and 206-616-6353.