Английский язык: Сборник текстов и упражнений. Дьякова Н.П. - 17 стр.

this significance has been lost. Now, the prevailing point is that the seabirds
are of no use any more. What’s more, feeding on fish, they are thought to be
diminishing marine resources, thus presenting serious competition to fisheries.
    This attitude can hardly be called fair. Indeed, at the sites of the largest ga-
thering of seabirds, they are able to consume the marine resources in quantities,
comparable only to industrial catching. However, the best part of their prey is
made of non-commercial fish and invertebrates. But, in contrast to human be-
ings, seabirds not just take tribute from the sea, but pay back in kind fertilizing
the off-shore waters with their excrements. According to the observations of
Magadan ornithologist a million of birds nestling on the Talan Island, located
in the North-Western part of the Sea of Okhotsk, consume every day about 200
tons of feed producing over 100 tons of soluble compounds of phosphorus and
nitrogen. Powerful input of biogenic elements into the sea surface facilitates
and expedites growth of phyto and zoo plankton, basic for the trophic chain
the commercial fish species have been a proved a link of. So, the seabirds are
found to assist the fish resource regeneration, considerably making up for what
they consume.
    In recent twenty years, on the Pribiloff and Saint Mathew Islands of the
eastern Bering Sea, observed was a drastic decrease in population and effective
reproduction offish-eating sea birds. One of the possible reasons is a very in-
tensive industrial fishing, that caused changes in the age structure of the local
pollock stocks, which constitute the feeding source for the seabirds Hocks in
that region. Fisheries affect birds but not just indirectly. Millions of birds pe-
rish getting caught in the nets during fishing operations according to American
experts estimations, mortality of seabirds of seabirds in Alaska resulting from
industrial fishing is registered higher than from all other human activities com-
bined. Many birds fall victims to driftnet fishing in the Far Eastern Waters.

                                    Vocabulary

   handicrafted clothing                     изготовление одежды
   significance                              значение
   to prevail                                преобладать, превалировать
   what’s more (more than that)
   to diminish                               сокращать
   fair                                      справедливый
   to prey                                   охотиться
   invertebrate                              беспозвоночное животное
   to take tribute                           собирать дань
   to fertilize                              удобрять
   off shore waters                          прибрежные воды
   excrement                                 экскремент
   ornithologist                             орнитолы
   soluable                                  растворимый

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