Warning to Barrier fishers on threat to rare petrel

The black petrel is attracted to fishing boats while seeking food.

As the rare and endangered black petrel nests on Great Barrier Island over summer, fishers have been asked to remain on guard to avoid accidentally hooking them.

Once numerous, petrels are now thought to number only about 5700. They nest on Great and Little Barrier Islands, and if a parent bird dies, so does its chick.

While nesting the seabirds fly far and wide to catch fish and squid for their single chicks.

These live mostly in burrows at the top of Mt Hobson on Great Barrier Island. But like all seabirds they are attracted to fishing boats.

A senior ecologist with Wildlife Management International, Elizabeth Bell, who has been studying the birds for 19 years, says petrels are most at risk from being hooked by recreational and commercial fishers.

"They dive for bait on hooks, or dive for small fish when the hooks are coming back up," she said.

"But we have a really good relationship with the fishing industry. The majority in the industry are keen to do the right thing. We bring commercial fishers and their crews to Mt Hobson to see the colony."