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The Subcommittee on Ecosystems of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) is to meet from 9-13 May 2011 in Miami. Florida, USA (click here for announcement and agenda).

An objective of the meeting is to continue providing results on research about the impacts of mitigation measures on catch rates of bycatch (including seabirds) and target species.  Bycatch mitigation measures in the ICCAT Convention area will be discussed.

The outputs of the SC-ECO meeting will be presented and further discussed at the meeting of the parent body of the SC-ECO, ICCAT's Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS), which is due to take place in Madrid, Spain from 26 September to 7 October 2011.  The ICCAT Commission meeting will take place from 9-19 November 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey (click here for meeting details).  The Commission is the decision-making body of ICCAT, and is the meeting at which formal proposals are presented, considered and finally adopted when there is sufficient support for them.

The main objective for ACAP at these ICCAT meetings in 2011 is to continue to prepare the ground and gain support for the submission of a formal proposal to improve/strengthen the current ICCAT Recommendation (07-07) on Reducing Incidental By-catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries.

Ongoing research is highlighting that the simultaneous use of weighted branch lines, paired bird-scaring streamer (tori) lines and night setting provide the most effective and practical suite of measures for mitigating seabird bycatch in pelagic longline fisheries.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 8 May 2011