Ubatuba Aquarium

The identification and study of endangered species are key elements in defining global and regional priorities for both conservation of the species and their habitats (Croxall, 1998). Most albatrosses and several other seabird species are threatened for extinction. A great deal of animals are being cought and unintentionally drowned by longline fishing boats. The longline is a passive fishing, compared to others, but the seabirds capture is frequent (Póstuma and Neves, 2002). The estimated index of mortality is around 900 albatrosses per annum, at least. These deaths occur off from the Southeastern Brazilian coast, one of the commonest species attending longline boats. Commercial fisheries interact with seabirds in many ways; the most notable one is competing for food. Other ways of interaction are by incidental mortality and using fisheries waste as food. The fisheries waste that frequently causes the gathering of large numbers of seabirds would rarely or never be seen under natural conditions (Olmos, 1997). South American and South African fleets are responsible for just a small part of the total longline fishing effort in the South Atlantic, considering the most fishing effort is being undertaken by Japan and Taiwan. Consequently, the total number of Atlantic Yellow-Nosed Albatrosses killed by longline fishing in the South Atlantic Ocean is likely to be far higher than the available estimates (Cuthbert et al., 2003). Atlantic Yellow-Nosed Albatross, Thalassarche chlororhynchos, breeds on Gough and all the islands in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago at the central South Atlantic Ocean (Cuthbert et al., 2003). In 1997, the archipelago and its territorial waters were proclaimed a Nature Reserve in terms of the Tristan da Cunha Conservatio