Night Fishing Lights May Be Harming Birds

After sunset during fishing season, boats searching for squid prowl the coast, guided by banks of lights that illuminate the sea like a baseball stadium and lure the little luminescent animals to the surface.

The lights are so intense, according to local lore, that you can read a newspaper at midnight five miles away on Anacapa Island.

But squid may not be the only creatures at risk. Deaths and nesting failures among endangered pelicans and other rare sea birds have increased at the Channel Islands National Park off Ventura County, and some scientists believe increased squid-fishing activity in the area in recent months may be partly responsible.

Researchers emphasize that more study is needed. But dozens of boats illuminating the night sky, they say, is an unnatural condition that strips a protective cloak of darkness from some of the West Coast’s most sensitive bird species.

“It’s like being in a lighted stadium. The light boats turn the night into day,” said William Sydeman, director of marine studies at Point Reyes National Seashore and a member of the Squid Research Scientific Committee. “It’s exposing sea birds to increased predation and compounding problems for these very sensitive birds that are already in a vulnerable state.”

Squid boat skippers don’t think they are causing the problem. They suspect that the National Park Service, which is studying the possibility of closing waters surrounding the islands to fishing, is using dead birds as an excuse to drive fishing fleets away.

Since January, 125 dead Xantu’s murrelets have been found on Santa Barbara Island, six times more than were found the previous year and nearly double the average annual death rate, according to federal scientists.