Global News - February 2008
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Pipefish feeding may offer 'catastrophic' threat to UK seabirds
Tue 19 February 2008 13:45 UK — Europe,Birds
A population explosion of the seahorse-like snake pipefish in waters around the UK could have a devastating effect on the country's sea bird populations, experts have warned.
The past five years have seen fast-growing numbers of the fish in UK coastal waters, with the fish largely unknown in the area prior to 2002, while stocks of other small fish normally eaten by sea birds have declined, the Observer reported.
Scientists have expressed their concerns due to the lack of nutritional value offered by the fish to the birds that eat them, as well discoveries of chicks that have choked to death on the pipefish's bodies.
"Since then [2002] the species has increased dramatically in abundance and its spread continues. Indeed it may be accelerating," Professor Mike Harris, of the Edinburgh Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, told the newspaper.
His colleague, Professor Sarah Wanless, added: "'It is an extremely worrying development. The spread of pipefish in our waters could have a catastrophic impact on sea bird breeding."
A study published earlier this month in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences claimed that scavenging sea birds feeding on fishing fleets' marine waste may be harmed due to its lack of nutritional value.
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