Recent trends in the west Greenland salmon fishery, and implications for Thick-billed Murres

John F. Piatt; David G. Reddin

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USGS · 70187884

Recent trends in the west Greenland salmon fishery, and implications for Thick-billed Murres

John F. Piatt·David G. Reddin

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Abstract

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a high net-mortality of seabirds, particularly Thick-billed Murres ( Uria lomvia ), was associated with the west Greenland salmon fishery. Since 1972, the domestic fishery has been controlled by quotas and fishery opening dates and non-Greenlandic offshore drift-net fishery was phased out in 1975. These restrictions probably resulted in a substantial decrease in murre net-mortality. However, the Greenlandic fishery has changed considerably since 1972 when seabird bycatch was last examined in detail. Fishing vessels now use monofilament nylon nets almost exclusively; fishing effort has redistributed closer to murre breeding colonies and intensive drift-netting occurs offshore on the continental shelf. These factors, combined with a change in 1981 to a later fishing season have probably resulted in a renewal of significant murre net-morality at west Greenland.

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Source-reported bounding extent: 59.22093407615045° to 71.01695975726373° latitude; -56.77734375° to -42.3193359375° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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John F. Piatt, David G. Reddin. 1982. Recent trends in the west Greenland salmon fishery, and implications for Thick-billed Murres. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70187884

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