The world’s spectacular animal migrations are dwindling. Fishing, fences and development are fast-tracking extinctions
Retrieved on:
Monday, February 12, 2024
This fate is all too common for migratory species.
Key Points:
- This fate is all too common for migratory species.
- Today, we get a global glimpse of how migratory species are faring, in the first-ever stocktake produced by the United Nations Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species.
- After all, the migratory humpback whale was headed for rapid extinction – until we stopped whaling.
Why are migratory species at higher risk?
- Some bar-tailed godwits fly 13,000 km without stopping – one of the longest known continuous migrations.
- On land, roads and fences carve up migratory routes for animals like wildebeest.
- While a few species are benefiting greatly from farming and artificial wetlands, many more are being severely harmed.
Overexploitation is the top risk
- Animals often migrate in large groups, making them an appealing target for hunting or fishing.
- Bycatch in commercial fisheries is a huge problem for sharks, turtles, mammals and birds, but it can be massively reduced with existing technology, if deployed across all fleets Overexploitation can be stopped.
- In 1981, Australia and Japan agreed to stop hunting Latham’s Snipe, a migratory shorebird that travels between the two countries.
On fences and stepping stones
- Light pollution can mess with navigation, climate change plays havoc with the timing of migration, and underwater noise pollution can confuse marine migrants.
- Even simple actions like building fences, roads and dams can disrupt migrations over land and through rivers.
- Many migratory species need stepping stones: resting sites linking up their whole migratory route.
What the report didn’t cover
- First, it only covers species listed under the UN convention, a tiny fraction of all migratory species.
- Listing unlocks stronger protections and urgently needs to be rolled out to more species.
- For instance, around 60 migratory fish species are covered – but more than 1,700 others are not.
Can we save these species?
- More than 90% of the world’s migratory birds aren’t adequately protected by national parks and other protected areas.
- Only 8% of the world’s protected land is joined up, preventing migrating animals from moving safely across their routes.
- Because of this, animals have to make daring sorties across unprotected land or sea to complete their journeys.
- Richard Fuller receives funding for migratory species research from the Australian Research Council and the National Environmental Science Program.
- Lily Bentley works on the Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean (MiCO; mico.eco) system, which has been previously supported by the German International Climate Initiative (IKI) and UNEP-WCMC, the authors of the UN report.