Although most concern around the impacts of light pollution on breeding seabirds centres on lights on land, vessels at sea can also affect large numbers of seabirds that visit their colonies at night. In the 1980s, vessels fishing for rock lobsters around Tristan da Cunha killed hundreds of petrels each year when they were attracted to the ships' lights at night. Subsequent measures to reduce deck lighting to a minimum, and to cover all windows and portholes at night, have greatly reduced mortality in this fishery, but small numbers of petrels are still killed each year. Over the last eight years, petrels have been reported coming aboard fishing vessels on 13% of nights. These ‘night strikes’ are more common at the start of the breeding season in early summer and especially in autumn, when most petrel chicks leave the breeding islands. Night strikes can also occur at sea in the Southern Ocean well away from breeding islands. We recommend that all vessels operating in these waters should be required to black out all but the most essential lights, especially on dark nights, and when operating close to breeding islands. More info at: Ryan PG, Ryan EM, Glass JM, 2021. Dazzled by the light: the impact of light pollution from ships on seabirds at Tristan da Cunha. Ostrich
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October 2023
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