Albatrosses outfitted for new police task
PARIS • Mariners of old believed that an albatross following their ship signified good luck, but fishermen illegally trawling the Indian Ocean now have cause to be wary of the seabirds.
Some 250 albatrosses are being equipped with tiny transceivers that will pick up trawlers’ radar signals.
Their locations will be transmitted to the French navy, which will use the data to identify vessels fishing in prohibited waters in the Indian Ocean, off the remote French islands of Crozet, Kerguelen and Amsterdam.
Vessels fishing illegally generally switch off their automatic identification system (AIS) to avoid being tracked by satellite, but they cannot navigate safely without emitting low-level radar signals, which the birds’ transceivers can detect as they fly overhead.
Sailing without radar in the rough waters of the Indian Ocean would be reckless. “Radars mean safety, especially for illegal ships that have to detect and avoid naval vessels,” said Henri Weimerskirch of the Chize Biological Research Centre in western France. “Half of the boats we detected did not have their AIS switched on.”
The transceivers, weighing less than two ounces, will be mounted on the albatrosses’ backs. They can pick up radar signals within a radius of more than three miles.
Eighteen of the 22 species of albatross are threatened, some with extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Commercial longline fishing poses a major threat to seabirds. Hundreds of thousands drown each year after being ensnared in fishing lines or nets.
More than 50 million birds live in the French Southern and Antarctic Nature Reserve, which includes the Indian Ocean waters policed by France, according to Cedric Marteau, head of the reserve. “This is the highest concentration (of birds) in the world and the explosion of fishing after 2000 has caused lasting damage to the fragile natural balance,” he said.
Many vessels that fish in prohibited waters deliberately create confusion about their identities and nationalities.
A report by the Environmental Justice Foundation revealed that 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, according to campaigners. 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.
To avoid being apprehended by French authorities in the southern Indian Ocean, many vessels that fish illegally now prefer to operate in international waters, including Asian and South American trawlers that rarely use bird deterrent devices, officials said.