the clash | 197already flagged as Special Protection Areas, a European Union conser-
vation designation.^22
The relatively modest target of the marine IBA approach is also com-
patible with international ambitions to increase the proportion of the
world’s seas in receipt of protection from the current 3 percent to 10
percent.^23 However, marine protected areas – MPAs in the jargon – are
not automatically zones were fishing is banned. It may be allowed, sub-
ject to regulation.
In the laudable pursuit of seabird conservation, I wonder if the way
forward may be to restrict fishing only where there is clear evidence
that the activity poses a clear and present danger to seabirds. In support
of that cautious approach is the argument that restricting fishing in one
area can simply displace it to another area, to cause problems there. To
illustrate, trawling is forbidden over most of the Patagonian Shelf be-
tween Argentina and the Falklands and, as a result, most regional inter-
actions between seabirds, such as Black- browed Albatrosses, and fisher-
ies occur on the border of the fishery closure area. Where the danger to
seabirds is lower, then prudent conservation of the fishery stock, rather
than fishery restrictions, does a favour to both birds and fishers.
None of these caveats should divert attention from the fact that there
will be times and places where restrictions on fisheries benefit seabirds.
In 1992 gill- net fisheries off eastern Canada for cod and Atlantic
Salmon were closed. This restriction benefitted some diving seabirds,
like Common Guillemots, which no longer became entangled in nets
but was less favourable to other species such as gulls that ceased to enjoy
the fishery discards.^24
Or take the case of the African Penguin* whose population at the
beginning of the 21st century had fallen to about 10 percent of its num-
bers 100 years before. As the decline continued in the early years of the
21st century, so the possibility that overfishing of anchovy, the penguins’
main prey, was a cause of penguin decline gained attention. This led,
from 2008 onwards, to fishery closures adjacent to penguin colonies
off the South African coast. The closures extended just 20 km from the
- (^) Also known as the Black- footed or Jackass Penguin, because of its braying call.