Seabird bycatch is being discussed by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna in Tokyo this week

The Eleventh Meeting of the Ecologically Related Species Working Group (ERSWG) of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) is being held this week in Tokyo, Japan.

The meeting’s provisional agenda states that the Secretariat will request the Albatross and Petrel Agreement and BirdLife International to provide updated information on the seabirds likely to be caught by Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) fisheries, including population status summaries and reviews of mitigations measures.  It is also expected that participants will report on recent mitigation research aimed at assessing the effectiveness of mitigation measures, and provide updates on current and planned mitigation research.

A report from the Effectiveness of Seabird Mitigation Measures Technical Group (SMMTG), on “Approaches for Measuring and Monitoring the Effectiveness of Seabird Conservation Measures in SBT Longline Fisheries” will be considered at the meeting.

The agenda states that the “ERSWG should consider any relevant measures for seabirds that would be applicable to vessels fishing for SBT.  This agenda item is also to consider conservation and management measures for recommending to the Extended Commission.  ERSWG 9 recognised that all three of the best practice mitigation measures should be applied in high risk areas, but the ERSWG has not identified high risk areas that require this level of mitigation.”

Click here for the report of the 10th Meeting of CCSBT's Ecologically Related Species Working Group, held in Canberra, Australia in August 2013. 

ACAP is being represented at the 11th ERSWG meeting by its Executive Secretary, Warren Papworth.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 March 2015