Action

Action Synopsis: Bird Conservation About Actions

Deter birds from landing on shellfish culture gear by suspending oyster bags under water

How is the evidence assessed?
  • Effectiveness
    55%
  • Certainty
    43%
  • Harms
    0%

Study locations

Key messages

A replicated and controlled study from Canada found that significantly fewer birds roosted on oyster bags suspended 6 cm below the water, compared with non-submerged bags. Birds roosted on bags suspended 3 cm below the water as frequently as control bags.

 

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

  1. A replicated and controlled experiment in summer and autumn 2006 and 2007 in oyster Crassostrea virginica farms off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada (Comeau et al. 2009), found that suspending oyster bags 6 cm under the water significantly reduced the number of birds roosting on them (1 bird/100 bags on submerged bags vs. 37 on controls). However, suspending bags 3 cm below the water did not significantly reduce the number of birds roosting (15 birds roosting/100 bags).

    Study and other actions tested
Please cite as:

Williams, D.R., Child, M.F., Dicks, L.V., Ockendon, N., Pople, R.G., Showler, D.A., Walsh, J.C., zu Ermgassen, E.K.H.J. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Bird Conservation. Pages 137-281 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

 

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

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Bird Conservation

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bird Conservation
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What Works in Conservation provides expert assessments of the effectiveness of actions, based on summarised evidence, in synopses. Subjects covered so far include amphibians, birds, mammals, forests, peatland and control of freshwater invasive species. More are in progress.

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