{"id":866603,"date":"2026-10-01T03:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T03:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/866603\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T03:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T03:14:08","slug":"floating-scarecrows-how-cornish-fishers-are-stopping-seabirds-drowning-in-their-nets-fishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/866603\/","title":{"rendered":"Floating scarecrows: how Cornish fishers are stopping seabirds drowning in their nets | Fishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bird-shaped kites and a floating scarecrow are being tested to try to stop endangered seabirds drowning in fishing nets.<\/p>\n

Every year an estimated 95,000 diving birds, including razorbills and guillemots, are accidentally caught in nets off European coasts.<\/p>\n

But simple deterrents tested by Cornish fishers and devised by scientists and the RSPB have been shown to reduce the toll by about two-thirds.<\/p>\n

The scarecrow \u2013 or more properly a looming-eyes buoy \u2013 has a spinning head with two large eyes that scare diving birds away from gillnets, walls of netting which hang vertically beneath the surface.<\/p>\n

The LEB was tested alongside a commercially available scarybird kite<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The buoy cut the chance of seabirds being caught in gillnets by 59%. Kites achieved a 71% figure. Photograph: Nina Constable Media<\/p>\n

Ten Cornish fishers and Fishtek Marine<\/a>, which created the LEB, fitted cameras to boats to monitor the effect of the devices on seabird behaviour.<\/p>\n

The results of the two-year trial, which was analysed by scientists from the University of Exeter and published in the journal Conservation Letters<\/a>, showed that the chance of seabirds being caught in gillnets fell by 59% using LEBs and by 71% using kites.<\/p>\n

The research revealed that in Cornwall<\/a> most seabirds were caught in winter, which will help target the use of the devices by season.<\/p>\n

Tom Horton, lead author of the University of Exeter research, said: \u201cThis study provides some of the strongest evidence to date that simple, practical deterrents can substantially reduce seabird bycatch in gillnet fisheries.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy also identifying when and where bycatch risk is highest, we now have a clear opportunity to target mitigation measures where they can deliver the greatest conservation benefit for vulnerable seabird populations and encourage sustainable fishing practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yann Rouxel, bycatch programme manager at the RSPB, said: \u201cAfter over a decade of research into gillnet bycatch and its solutions, it\u2019s great to see this work moving towards real-world implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe performance of the LEB and kite, as evidenced in this study, is a major milestone in the effort to reduce seabird bycatch without impeding gillnet fishers while at sea.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bird-shaped kites and a floating scarecrow are being tested to try to stop endangered seabirds drowning in fishing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-866603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}