The WWF, a conservation organization, said on Thursday that more than 7 million sharks and skates are killed every year as an unintended consequence of longline fishing off the west coasts of South Africa, Namibia and Angola.

WWF said in a report released in Cape Town that the practice also claims some 34,000 seabirds and 4,200 sea turtles a year in the area known as the Benguela Ecosystem.

The statement said: "The majority of albatross and sea turtle species and many shark species are listed as threatened with extinction by the IUCN (World Conservation Union), with fisheries impacts being cited as a major cause."

Samantha Petersen, manager of the BirdLife and WWF Responsible Fisheries Program, said at the launch: "The report shows us that the bycatch is substantial, it is a huge concern."

"But there is a lot of will to resolve the issue and there are win-win solutions," he noted, these included the use of bird-scaring lines -- scarecrow-like ropes cast alongside fishing lines to stop albatrosses and other seabirds from diving onto baited hooks set by fishing vessels.

Petersen said that the use of such lines was compulsory in South Africa, but compliance was low.

Source: Xinhua