Seabird Division

BirdLife International's Global Seabird Programme has four staff working on seabird conservation. Work is conducted nationally (Albatross Task Force and African Penguin work), regionally (Marine Important Bird Areas programme) and globally (Regional Fisheries Management Organisations). To support the immediate needs of the conservation programme, and build up a capital account for sustainable seabird funding in future, the Seabird Division launched the Save our Seabirds Fund.

Seabird Bycatch Mitigation Factsheets

Simple and inexpensive mitigation measures can be highly successful in reducing seabird bycatch, especially when used in combination.

BirdLife have produced a series of 14 Seabird Bycatch Mitigation Factsheets which describe the range of potential mitigation measures available to reduce seabird bycatch in longline and trawl fisheries. The sheets assess the effectiveness of each measure, highlight their limitations and strengths, and make best practice recommendations for their effective adoption. They are designed to help decision-makers choose the most appropriate measures for their longline and trawl fisheries.

Click here to view the factsheets (BirdLife International link)

How YOU can contribute to seabird conservation and help Save Our Seabirds

BirdLife South Africa have been getting quite a few reports of fishermen leaving seabirds with hooks and line trailing from them. This is possibly due to lack of education on how to properly handle these birds or being afraid of getting injured by their sharp beaks. In an attempt to try to prevent future incidents and educate the fishermen, a cartoon has been created to educate people and shows very simply how to handle a live bird with a hook in it.  If done properly it is hoped that it will result in the birds escaping without much injury.

Download this fun and illustrative cartoon (1MB)

International Coastal Clean-up Week 12 -17 September 2011

BirdLife South Africa's Seabird Division dedicated an hour and ten minutes of their time on 14 September to clean up Camps Bay main beach. At first glance it looked pretty clean. However on closer inspection, the beach had large amounts of small pieces of litter. There were all the usual items one would expect to find doing a beach clean-up: bottle caps, straws, cigarette butts, plastic, rope, cigarette lighter, glass, tin foil, sweet papers etc. The most unusual was a CD and very small plastic horse! 

Save our Seabirds (SOS) Festival 2011

The annual Save our Seabirds Festival will be held from 10-16 October 2011.  Read more...

Sustainable Seafood Initiative

Say "YES" to sustainable seafood. Read more...

Wine "For the Birds"

Diemersfontein, a birder-friendly establishment, launches wine in support of BirdLife South Africa. Read more ...

For more information, please contact Dr Ross Wanless, Seabird Division Manager on +27(0)73 675 3267 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it