Two million seabirds have been killed by fishing lines in the past decade because the EU is failing to take “cheap and effective” action to tackle the problem, Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson said yesterday.

Mr Stevenson, who is senior vice-president of the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee, slammed EU stalling on the issue and has called on Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki to address it urgently.

Dozens of rare species, including albatrosses, face extinction because so many birds are getting caught unnecessarily on ‘longline’ tackle, used extensively by European fishermen.

Longlines can contain as many as 2,500 baited hooks and can stretch for miles underneath the water’s surface – trapping birds as they swoop down for the bait. After a slow and agonising death by drowning, the birds are usually cast back into the sea by fishermen. 

Mr Stevenson said: “The European Commission has been promising to address this issue for over a decade. Meanwhile, several countries outside the EU – including the tiny Falkland Islands – have started to tackle the problem.

“The solutions to reducing bird by-catch are both cheap and effective. Fishermen can be urged to set their baited longlines at night when seabirds are not around or can’t see the bait. Alternatively, cheap funnel systems are available which enable the baited lines to be set under the surface, so again the birds cannot see the baited hooks. Weights have also been used successfully to ensure that the baited lines sink below the surface quickly before birds can get caught.

“I have written to the new Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki, asking when the Commission intends to publish its promised European Community Plan of Action for Seabirds and emphasising the need for urgent action.”

Around seven million seabirds, of 25 species, breed in the UK, representing over half of the European total. Globally, the UK’s Overseas Territories host a third of the world’s breeding albatrosses, the most threatened group of birds in the world, with fisheries inflicting by far the heaviest losses.