India 's Black Market in Birds Threatening Rare Species

 

India is home to some 1,200 different species of birds. Despite measures designed to protect this rich array of bird life by banning the capture and trade of wild birds, records indicate that as many as 300 of these species are caught and
traded with impunity. Large seizures of illegally captured wild birds in India number about 30 each year. In one of the largest recent incidents illustrating the huge scale of this flourishing black market, more than 10,000 birds were confiscated at the Mumbai (formerly called Bombay) international airport in March 2001.

Until 1991, India was one of the largest exporters of wild birds to international bird markets. Most of the birds traded were parakeets and munias, especially the rose-ringed parakeet, the black-headed munia and the red munia. In 1991, however, an amendment to the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 was adopted that bans all trade and trapping of indigenous birds in the country.

However, the ban is ineffective, as illegal bird trade flourishes in almost all cities, towns, and rural hamlets of the country. The trade is not limited to domestic markets. There is continuous large-scale bird smuggling out of the country. A number of the wild birds on the Indian subcontinent that are being widely traded are threatened species, including the swamp francolin, green munia, Finnâs baya, and Shaheen falcon. Of the many different species being traded, 16 are among the world's most highly endangered, 36 are listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and six are included on the Red Data list of endangered species compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

Wild birds are captured for at least seven reasons, which helps explain why the practice is so prevalent and difficult to halt.

Besides the usual practices of trapping birds as pets and for food, zoological and medicinal purposes, or taxidermy, several species of birds that are poor candidates as pets and for consumption are often captured for the bird-release business.

This is a uniquely Indian religious tradition. Among Hindus, Jains, and a few other communities, there is a belief that releasing birds that are held in captivity can purify the soul and relieve personal sins. On auspicious days, people go and buy birds from traders for release. This has led to the development of an entire business around the religious custom. Species of wild birds that are unsuitable as pets or food are captured and brought near these holy places for the devout to purchase and re-release.

Some important protected species like the horned owl were hunted for black magic rituals and sorcery, such as the practice of certain tribes that use the owls to purify "amulets" during their street performances.

Finally, although the sport of falconry is now a vanishing art in India, a large number of wild raptors are caught every year to smuggle to the Middle East, where falconry is still popular.

Accurate figures on the capture of wild birds for local consumption are impossible to obtain because of the secretive nature of the practice. It is known, however, that species ranging from pelican to ducks and waders are caught for
consumption. Added to these huge losses is a large number of bird deaths during international transit. For every bird that reaches its final destination, two die en route. The mortality of wild birds during transit is thought to have increased since the trade ban was put into effect because of the extra efforts that are made to conceal the illicit cargo.

Pallava Bagla. National Geographic News. 2002

 

 

"Dirty Fishing" Emptying Oceans

 

In June 2003, along the shoreline of Mauritania, in northwest Africa, scientists made a gruesome discovery: the carcasses of 230 dolphins, a pilot whale, and 15 endangered hawksbill and leatherback sea turtles. Because of the mixture of species found, and the fact that some of them were entangled in sections of fishing nets, it is likely that these animals were killed as bycatch.

Across the world's oceans, large commercial fishing boats haul aboard huge nets and 97-kilometre lines teeming with unwanted creatures – bycatch, sometimes referred to as "bykill" or "dirty fishing". "Bycatch is a mix of young or low-value fishes, seabirds, marine mammals, and sea turtles, often considered worthless and tossed overboard – dead or dying. The collateral damage amounts to about 30 million tons of sea life each year – about one-third the total global catch. Among the worst offenders are shrimp trawlers, who often discard up to 10 pounds of sea life for each pound of shrimp they catch.

Just 10 per cent of swordfish, sharks and other large, predatory fish remain in the world's oceans after just 50 years of commercial fishing. Without immediate action, they could go the way of the dinosaurs.

Bottom trawling inflicts the most damage on the undersea environment. Trawlers drag weighted nets up to a quarter-mile wide along the ocean floor, bulldozing deep-sea coral reefs and other seafloor ecosystems where many sea animals live or breed. It is the equivalent of clear cutting forests to hunt deer.

The study also classified gill nets and longline fishing as "high impact". With these methods, you're catching and killing everything that swims by. Gill nets are transparent fences, suspended by top floats and stretched taught by a weighted bottom. Longlining – one of the most common fishing methods – sets out miles of baited hooks that snag or entangle unwanted species, including at least forty seabird species.

The enormity of the problem still isn't understood. All seven species of marine turtle are endangered. The rarest turtle, the leatherback, has declined by 95 per cent oceanwide. With better-protected nesting beaches, scientists believe bycatch plays a big role in population declines.

Fisheries around the world kill seals, whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals in the course of operations. Some of these are endangered species.
The bykill issue is a huge, complex problem. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Bycatch must be addressed, fishery by fishery.

Some types of gear, like purse seines and hook and line are less damaging.

In some cases, the answer is to modify gear. For example, in the Bering Sea, changing net's mesh size and shape cut bycatch of young pollock by 75 per cent.

An abiding success is the dolphin. During the 1960's, 200,000 dolphins a year drowned in drawstring nets used for Pacific yellowfin tuna. Public outcry and a consumer boycott spurred Congress to pass the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972. Since then, nets are set to spare dolphins.

Another lifesaving technique is to outfit gill nets with acoustic alarms called "pinger," which reduced capture turtles greatly.

The world's largest flying bird, the wandering albatross, is in serious trouble because of longline tuna fishing in the sub-Antarctic Ocean. But an innovation by Japanese fishermen is keeping birds away from some operations. They attach metallic red streamers to nets that scare the birds away while nets are submerged.

Growing scientific evidence shows that some marine species are threatened with extinction – and others will be – unless fishing practices and regulations change.

Sometimes the only answer is to limit fishing. Fisheries have been closed where populations are "economically extinct", like the North Atlantic cod fishery.

Recent Pew Oceans Commission recommendations call for a new approach to managing fisheries that preserves habitat in addition to setting catch limits. There must be set aside a network of fully protected marine reserves, linked by corridors, to protect breeding and nursery grounds.

The bycatch issue requires both national regulations and international agreements. Regulations can save species. One conservation success is Kemp's ridley turtle, once the most endangered marine turtle. By the 1970's, shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico had fished them nearly to extinction. Only 300 nesting females remained. Then in the mid-1980's, the Turtle Excluder Device, or TED, a turtle escape hatch, was introduced. Since 1990, TEDs are required in U.S. waters, though compliance varies by region. Today, nesting females have jumped to 3,000.

Given a measure of protection, sea creatures can rebound.

Sharon Guynup. National Geographic Channel . 2003

 

 

⇐ Предыдущая43444546474849505152Следующая ⇒

Поделиться: