Date: 11/10/25 8:31 am From: Barbara Volkle <barb620...> Subject: [MASSBIRD] a view from the East Asian-Australasian Flyway
Thanks to Mary Margaret Halsey for supplying this story to share here:
Flying Free -
A new study found migratory shorebird populations - like the flock of bar-tailed godwits pictured here - are declining due to hunting and fishing nets in China. Between August and March, more than 50 million shorebirds migrate south along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Pit tops in Singapore and along China's coast are popular on this route, so the researchers surveyed 29 of these locations and found more than 47,800 birds are killed annually and observed significant reductions in 11 bird species. The research team, which was led by ecology and evolutionary biology professor David Wilcove and associate research scholar Dan Liang, recommends removing nets once harvest season ends, using colorful nets, and enacting stricter enforcement. The findings were published in September in the journal NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION.
