Did you ever think about the subject how ship traffic
influence seabirds?
How ecosystems are affected by ships? We don't
consider now how river and terrestrial areas are influenced by
pollution. Increasing activities by humans mean that governments have
to plan spatial schemes for conservation of certain species living at
sea.
Ship traffic is increasing and that affect live of
seabirds. People doesn't understand that they influence the way birds
live at sea. Lack of understanding can cost many lives of rare
species.
There have to be a plan for preserving biodiversity,
some rules have to be applied. Human's nature is to think only for
himself. Organizations are using aerial surveys and create
disturbance experiments to gather data how this will affect live of
the seabirds in conditions close to those created by passing ship
traffic. Some things like losing habitat, flight reactions.
For example test showed that these birds were trying
to avoid places with high shipping intensity. But other birds like
sea duck differed a lot. Flush distance was positively connected to
flock size.
A lot of seabirds were examined, the duration of
temporary habitat loss was longest for Common Scoters.
It is discovered that
habituation in sea ducks within areas of channeled traffic is
common problem. Although, it is
under question if habituation to
free-ranging vessels is likely to occur,
for a reason of their unpredictable nature.
It is recommended
that spatial planning must aim to channel
ship traffic wherever possible to avoid further habitat fragmentation
and to allow for habituation, at least in some species. Data
gathered from the study on the effects of shipping on other
seabird species and during different periods of the year must
be done, together with data on the
effects of various types of boats,
including recreational and fishing vessels.
