Commercial fishing vessels use very large drift nets in which a variety of animals, including seabirds, become entangled and die. Drift nets may be a significant source of mortality for some species, and Dr. Sievert Rohwer of the University of Washington has devised a method of estimating the degree to which drift nets are diminishing sea bird population. Observers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be accompanying commercial fishing ships from Japan, Taiwan, and Korea this coming year, and Dr. Rohwer has arranged for the seabirds harvested in their drift nets to be donated to the Burke Museum of the University of Washington for further study. This program of specimen acquisition and curation will bring new Pacific seabird species to light, and will allow ecologists to determine the species that are most affected by drift nets. Ecologists will be able to ascertain the age distribution of birds killed in this manner. This information will help in the formulation of fishing policies, and the design of management plans for threatened or endangered species.
