Indian Ocean Tuna Commission’s Working Party on Ecosystems and Bycatch to discuss seabird bycatch and its mitigation next month in Portugal

The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) will hold the 11th meeting of its Working Party on Ecosystems and Bycatch (WPEB11) in Olhâo, Portugal over 7 to 11 September.

A total of six papers dealing with the issue of bycatch of seabirds will be tabled and discussed.  They are listed by title here.

Angel, A., Wanless, R.[M.] & Small, C, 2015.  A need for improved reporting on seabird bycatch in the longline fishery.  IOTC–2015–WPEB11–33.  4 pp.

Wanless, R.M. & Small, C. 2015.  New approaches for better understanding seabird bycatch. in tuna longline fisheries.  IOTC–2015–WPEB11–34.  2 pp.

ACAP Secretariat 2015.  ACAP summary advice for reducing the impact of pelagic longline fishing on seabirds.  IOTC–2015–WPEB11–35.  4 pp.

Wolfaardt, A. & Debski, I. 2015.  Estimation of seabird bycatch rates and numbers.  IOTC–2015–WPEB11–36.  4 pp.

Inoue, Y., Yokawa, K. & Minami, H. 2015.  Preliminary analyses; evaluation of the effects of the newly employed seabird bycatch regulation for longline fisheries in IOTC conventional area with using current observer data .  IOTC–2015–WPEB11–37.  10 pp.

Inoue, Y., Alderman, R., Taguchi, M., Sakuma, K., Kitamura, T., Phillips, R.A., Burg, T.M., Small, C., Sato, M., Papworth, W. & Minami, H. 2015.  Progress of the development of the DNA identification for the southern albatross bycatch in longline fishery.  IOTC–2015–WPEB11–38.  21 pp.

The Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross occurs within the IOTC region, photograph by Peter Ryan

ACAP will be represented at the meeting by Anton Wolfaardt, Convenor of the ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group, who will present the two ACAP papers.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 August 2015