In an attempt to ensure the survival of endangered birds, a leaflet explaining to fishermen what to do if a bird is accidentally caught in their nets is being distributed to the entire Maltese fishing fleet.

The majority of Maltese fishermen are interested in collaborating to help protect the birds and enhance fishing activity. The response to the Seabird Guide for Fishermen both locally and abroad has been very positive, Birdlife said in a statement.

Since Malta has around 10 per cent of the world's population of Yelkouan Shearwaters and five per cent of Cory's Shearwaters, project partners are taking seriously their responsibility to understand and deal with this threat to prevent serious declines of these birds.

Ray Caruana of the Malta Centre for Fisheries Sciences (MCFS) said: "Fishermen do not want to catch these birds either, as it reduces fishing efficiency, so throughout the project the centre will be collecting more data on by-catch and working with the fishing community to reduce it. The Seabird Guide will help fishermen to identify birds they find at sea".

Mr Caruana was attending the ICCAT sub-committee meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna on behalf of MCFS and the Yelkouan Shearwater Project where he presented a paper to participants.

The project is a partnership of government authorities, internal organisations and Birdlife Malta. One of its key aims is to reduce the number of shearwaters which are accidentally caught by fishermen.

The Seabird Guide for Fishermen prepared by the EU LIFE Yelkouan Shearwater project team has been adopted as the basis for an international poster for fishermen following its presentation during an international meeting in Madrid last week.

More information is available on the project website at www.lifeshearwaterproject.org.mt.