SPECIAL NOTICE
                             February, 1997
                                    
    Avoidance of Short-Tailed Albatross taken by hook-and-line gear 
         in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands 
                            Management Areas
                                    
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) encourages fishermen to take precautions to reduce
incidental takes of marine birds, particularly short-tailed albatross, a species listed as endangered
under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  

Recommendations for avoiding seabirds include: 

*    Deploy gear during darkness, when practicable.  Most seabirds do not look for
     food at night.
*    Accelerate the gear sink time by adding weight to groundlines and/or using
     thawed bait.  Hooks will sink more quickly, and thus will be unavailable to
     seabirds. 
*    Suspend a streamer line before deploying gear.  Streamer lines extend from a pole on the
     stern to a weight which drags the line beyond where baited hooks submerge.  Streamers
     are made of plastic or rubber tubing or flexible plastic strips that are suspended by
     swivels and measured to dangle just above baited lines.  Streamers discourage bird
     approaches and can significantly increase bait retention.
*    Tow, offset from gear, buoy-bags (empty plastic jugs filled with bolts or hooks to make
     noise) from stern and/or tow a 4-5 foot-long "1x2" or similar lumber. 
*    Avoid disposal of fish offal immediately before or during setting and retrieving gear.
*    Make every effort to ensure that birds brought aboard alive are released alive and that
     whenever possible, hooks are removed without jeopardizing the life of the bird.

Description of Short-Tailed Albatross
This species has a wingspan of 6-7 feet.  Adults are white bodied with dark mantles,
and the back inner halves of the wings are mostly white. Juvenile short-tailed albatrosses
are more uniformly dark, but all have a distinctive heavy pink bill.  
Please report short-tailed albatross sightings to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 800-272-4174.  For more information contact Andrew Grossman at NMFS: 907-586-7358. 

Thank you for your cooperation.