A cheap technique has been shown to reduce Albatross deaths at sea by over 90 per cent.

The sight of seabirds following trawlers to feast from discarded fish is a common maritime sight, but many thousands of seabirds are killed by overhanging cables or nets each year.

But a simple scare might be enough to greatly reduce bird deaths near boats.

New research looked at albatross mortality figures from South Africa, showing that a bird scaring line can reduce the mortality rate by over 90%.

A bird scaring line is nothing complicated; it is a string of streamers that hang from a line attached to the stern of a fishing vessel.

The research compiled data from five years of observations to compare current and historic mortality rates.

The results show that bird scaring lines alone resulted in 73 to 95% lower mortality, including a 95% reduction in albatross deaths.

Albatrosses are the most threatened group of birds on earth, with fishery-related deaths being the biggest threat to this group.

Due to the many months they spend at sea at a time, Albatrosses produce few off-spring, meaning that these deaths have a disproportionately damaging impact on the global population.

Previous research shows that in 2006, approximately 18,000 seabirds were killed each year by the South African hake trawl fishery, of which 14,000 were albatrosses.

The new report has been published in the journal Animal Conservation.