Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00775:reg:18:p45
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00775
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 18 (pt 45/152)
Character Range: 164784–167612

sufficient to decrease the population. Considerable levels of bycatch from gill-nets, purse-seines, longlines and inshore trawl have been recorded across the range (Japan, Australia, Russia and New Zealand) affecting the majority of the population.

Some mitigation methods have been put in place to reduce incidental capture, however the species is repeatedly found to be amongst the seabirds at greatest risk. In Baker and Wise's (2005) findings, 91 per cent of all birds taken were Flesh-footed Shearwaters. Mortality in the ETBF has evidently decreased in recent years, but this is thought to be largely due to the fishery shifting northward in 2006/07 due to a change in the targeted fish species (Reid et al. 2013b). Consequently, high mortality rates in the ETBF may occur again in future years if the fishery returns south. Data on Flesh-footed Shearwater bycatch in the West and South Coast Purse Seine Managed Fisheries in Western Australia (six vessels operated in 2010) suggest up to six adult birds are killed per day per boat (DEF 2005) with more than 512 birds entangled in one season (Dunlop 2007).

From 1992 to 1996, estimates of seabird bycatch rates on Japanese long-line vessels fishing within the southern Australian EEZ varied between 0.1 and 0.3 birds per 1,000 hooks, with Flesh-footed Shearwaters accounting for around 10 per cent of the observed bycatch (Tuck et al. 2003). An additional 677 Flesh-footed Shearwaters are reportedly taken each year in the Japanese neon flying squid driftnet fishery (Ogi 2008) and 116 in the land-based salmon gillnet fishery (DeGange and Day 1991).
The incidence of plastic ingestion by chicks over the past decade is high with 90 per cent of sampled fledglings having ingested plastic (Lavers and Bond 2016). Data from New Zealand indicates around 44 per cent of adult birds contain plastic (Robertson et al. 2004). Heavy metal contamination (silver, aluminium, copper, mercury, arsenic and cadmium) have been detected in multiple populations and may be co-pollutants linked to plastic consumption (Bond and Lavers 2011, Lavers et al. 2014, Lewis 2016).

Introduced Black Rats (Rattus rattus) and Brown Rats (R. norvegicus) are present
in parts of the breeding range (Taylor 2000, Gaze 2000, Priddel et al. 2006). On Breaksea
Island, adults compete with introduced rabbits for burrows (Lavers 2015).

Several roads pass through or run adjacent to breeding colonies on Lord Howe Island, and mortalities are frequently reported along the roadsides (Hutton 2003, DECC 2008). The density of carcasses adjacent to roads was 25 times greater than elsewhere in the colony, and an estimated 125 birds were killed on roads during the 2008/2009 breeding season (Reid 2010, Reid et al. 2013b). These rates are sufficient to drive a slow population decrease (Reid et al. 2013b).