Some seabirds could be at risk from reductions in the number of fish thrown back by fishermen, according to a study in this week's Nature. As discards from fisheries decline due to efforts to protect fish stocks, great skuas (Stercorarius skua) are instead preying on fellow birds such as puffins and guillemots.

Great skuas are among the North Sea's top predators, but they also feed on discarded fish because the birds' large size allows them to jostle successfully with other birds that swarm around fishing boats. However, smaller catches of fish such as cod have led to a slump in the number of discarded fish, causing the great skuas to turn on smaller seabirds for food, report Dr Stephen C. Votier at the Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Glasgow, and colleagues.

The authors of the paper do not recommend increasing the amount of discarded fish simply to protect seabirds. But they suggest that efforts could be made to conserve small shoaling fish such as sandeels, which offer an alternative food source for great skuas and could alleviate the pressure on smaller seabirds.

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The research was supported by the Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Advisory Group (SOTEAG) and by the European Commission contract ?Discbird?.

For more details please contact Dr Stephen C. Votier on 0141 330 2797, email: s.votier@bio.gla.ac.uk, or the University Press Officer Mike Findlay on 0141 330-8593 or email: m.findlay@admin.gla.ac.uk.

First published: 19 February 2004