At its 81st Meeting held in Antigua, Guatemala from 27 September - 1 October 2010 the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) considered further the issue of seabird bycatch.
The IATTC had previously adopted Resolution C-05-01 on Incidental Mortality of Seabirds in 2005 which required Parties to exchange data on interactions of longline vessels with seabirds. A Technical Meeting on Seabirds (click here for the meeting report) took place at the initiative of the IATTC Secretariat in Del Mar, USA in May 2009 in order to examine further these interactions and to take stock of existing mitigation measures against seabird mortality.
Several documents that were considered at the meeting relating to seabird bycatch may be found at http://www.iattc.org/Meetings2010/IATTC-AIDCP-Annual-2010ENG.htm.
The Albatross and Petrel Agreement was represented at the Antigua meeting by the Chair of its Advisory Committee, Marco Favero.
Click here for an earlier related ACAP news item on the IATTC's deliberations.
John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 January 2011