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The inter-sessional meeting of the Subcommittee on Ecosystems (SC-ECO) of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) took place from 9-13 May 2011 in Miami, Florida, USA.  The main items on the agenda were seabird and turtle bycatch, and the use of ecosystem models in fisheries management.

A number of papers on seabird bycatch and mitigation was presented and discussed.  The Subcommittee noted with satisfaction the amount of research that has been conducted since the previous meeting in 2010 to assess the efficacy of seabird bycatch mitigation measures.  On the basis of the research presented and discussed, the Subcommittee reinforced its recommendation that the combined use of tori (bird-scaring) lines, line weighting and night setting would be the most effective way to reduce seabird bycatch in pelagic longline fisheries.

The Subcommittee also re-iterated the need for all member countries to collect and provide bycatch data to ICCAT's Standing Committee on Research and Statistics, and highlighted the need for further analysis, combining tracking, species distribution and bycatch data, to fill existing data gaps, and monitor levels and impacts of seabird bycatch.

It was reported that the ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group will be meeting in August 2011, when they will be reviewing all of the recent seabird bycatch mitigation research, with the aim of producing updated advice.  The Subcommittee recommended that ACAP's updated advice and other relevant information be presented at the ICCAT SCRS meeting in Madrid, Spain from 26 September to 7 October 2011.

Click here for an earlier ACAP report on the meeting's objectives.

With thanks to Anton Wolfaardt, UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 May 2011