Human Disturbances to Waterfowl
Annotated Bibliography
Water-based recreationists increased sevenfold in the last 30 years. In Britain nearly 4 million anglers, half a million boaters, half a million bird-watchers, and other millions make some impact on wetlands. There must be some sort of rationing. Activities that cause disturbance to waterfowl in order of decreasing disturbance are: (1) those involving rapid movement and loud noise (power-boating, water skiing, cruising), (2) those involving movement but little noise (sailing, wind surfing, rowing, canoeing), (3) those involving little movement or noise (sub-aqua, swimming), and (4) those carried out largely from the banks (coarse fishing, game fishing, bird-watching, informal). Tuite et al. (1983) ranked species of winter waterfowl in increasing sensitivity: common pochard (Aythya ferina), tufted duck (A. fuligula), common merganser (Mergus merganser), mute swan (Cygnus olor), mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), Eurasian wigeon (A. penelope), northern shoveler (A. clypeata), and common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula). Boats must be kept at least 300 m from a waterfowl area. Banks are more easily zoned than water itself, and bird areas must be strictly off limits to anglers. The paper also discusses how to accommodate bird-watchers and use of wetland display centers to educate the general public.
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