Hi Folks,

I saw the following on the SeaBird-L listserver, and thought that some of
might be interested, in that there are implications to the sea birds that
pass our shores on their great migrations. Having met Mr. Lundsten, and
knowing of his efforts in 'cleaning-up' the bird by-catch in the longline
fishery, I give some credence to his observations and opinions.

As Election Day nears in the U.S., we have to read and listen to the lies
and counter-lies of the partisan candidates on a daily basis. What makes it
into the National Media is only differing in degrees of deception. I can
certainly understand the frustration of such a person as Mr. Lundsten who
has invested time, money, and effort in trying to 'green' his industry, only
to have the "National Conservation Organizations" use the very information
he has gathered on bycatch reduction in their efforts to kick him off the
water and raise donations from the ignorant masses who only want to 'save
the birds'.

Before we vote on anything, and before we donate money to the "NGOs", I hope
that we make an honest effort to understand the issues, and aquaint
ourselves with all sides of the 'controversies'.

Jon. (2-cents' worth) Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net
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Mark Lundsten wrote:

Birdbycatch readers -

I was disappointed to read the group letter sent to Secretary Mineta
from Gerald Winegrad and a coalition of NGOs. The letter marginalized good
faith efforts on the part of the Alaskan halibut/sablefish fleet (as well as
the freezer-longliners) and delegated us to the role of the problem, while
in reality we have been working out a solution.
Right off the bat, in his solicitation for signatures, Gerald Winegrad
misuses the word "slaughter:"

"Dear Friend of Seabirds:
The slaughter of albatrosses, shearwaters, petrels, fulmars and
gulls on longline hooks continues in Alaskan and Hawaiian waters."

Our bycatch of seabirds in not "slaughter." Gerald's vivid language is
not only misleading but also cheap and offensive. We do kill some seabirds
in our fishing operations, but it is not a "slaughter." The killing of
Short-tailed Albatrosses by the Japanese 100 years ago was a "slaughter."
The extermination of the North American buffalo was a "slaughter." If we
were doing nothing about the deaths of seabirds on our hooks and then
selling the feathers or the bills,it would be a "slaughter." But that is not
the case. Many of us who fish in Alaska are actually, painstakingly solving
this problem, not just politically working it by sending letters with lists
of demands to members of the Cabinet.

Gerald goes on further to misinform:

"The populations of many species of seabirds are in decline globally and
longlining has been implicated in this decline."

Short-tailed albatrosses, the most critical population of seabirds in Alaska
(and Hawaii) have been steadily increasing for a number of years now; and
the commercial fishing industry had nothing to do with their decline. Peter
Harrison has a fine nutshell summary of this bird's situation in his
"Seabirds: An Identification Guide." A review of this will show Gerald's
statement to be a distortion. If he were speaking about seabirds in the
Southern Hemisphere, then perhaps his point would be valid. In Alaska, it's
not true.

Thought the actual letter to Mineta is toned down, the anti-commercial
fishing bias remains. We who fish are assumed by Gerald to be the enemy. I'm
sure that's good for beating the drum for fund-raising and sound-bite
campaigning even though it's not the truth. And it is not the way to solve
problems. Cooperation between environmentalists and fishermen should be the
single most effective way to promote marine conservation. If Gerald wanted
to do that, he would grant us the simple courtesy of respecting and
acknowledging our work and our point of view. This effort to control the
fishing industry from Washington, D.C., and completely to ignore what we are
doing in the fishing business is a breach of faith. Besides being
small-minded, Gerald and his signatures have taken conservation backward,
not forward.

A copy of my own letter to Mineta follows.

Mark S. Lundsten
F/V Masonic
1939 - 8th Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98119
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Dear Secretary Mineta:

The halibut/sablefish fleet in Alaska has solved the problem of seabird
bycatch in our fisheries. This winter, well before the beginning of next
season, fishermen who are members of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association
(FVOA) will propose seabird bycatch regulations to the North Pacific
Fisheries Management Council that will be effective, practical, and
enforceable. These regulations will be based on our own experiences
developing bird-deterrent devices over the last five years and on a study
conducted by Ed Melvin of Washington Sea Grant, with the cooperation of the
National Marine Fisheries Service, testing the effectiveness of those
devices over the last two years. The resultant regulations will all but
eliminate seabird mortality in the whole halibut/sablefish fisheries, just
as they already have on the boats where these systems have been developed. I
encourage you to examine our problem, monitor our progress, and expedite the
passage and implementation of these regulations. But please allow us to pass
regulations actually based on our experience and research. Please do not
intervene in this process based on pressure from some groups who have had
nothing to do with this process except for politics.

Our record, and our intent, speaks for itself. The Alaska longline
fisheries for halibut and sablefish have a legacy of conservation rarely
equaled in the world. The stocks of halibut and sablefish are abundant
because the fishermen have been abiding by sensible and practical
regulations that insure sustainable fisheries since early last century.
Faced with an endangered species (the Short-tailed Albatross) in our midst,
we realized we had to protect it, and ourselves, from harm. Since the
mid-90's, the halibut/sablefish longliners have tried many devices to
eliminate bird bycatch on our gear. By 1998, a number of boats independently
had developed very similar systems that effectively kept seabirds away from
our gear. During the 1999 and 2000 seasons, the study was conducted by Sea
Grant to test and document the effectiveness of these refined techniques in
order to provide a foundation for regulations.

I am a working fisherman, the owner and operator of a 70-foot longliner,
the Masonic. I am a member and Trustee of FVOA in Seattle. FVOA provided all
the vessels, including the Masonic, for the two-year study of bird-deterrent
devices in the halibut/sablefish fisheries. FVOA will also be the one making
a proposal to the North Pacific Council based on our experience and on the
Sea Grant study.

I encourage you to contact Ed Melvin at Washington Sea Grant if you have
any questions about that study. I am also enclosing two items: a video I
made and widely distributed in 1997 and an article I wrote for Marine
Technology Society Journal for the summer 1999 edition. Both explain our
fishery and our initial efforts at seabird deterrence.

Thank you for your consideration.


Sincerely,





Mark S. Lundsten