Annex A
Results: supplementary tables

A.1 SUMMARY OF DISCARD ESTIMATE WITH CONFIDENCE LIMITS

TABLE 14
Summary of discard estimate with confidence limits

Sum of landings (discard database) (tonnes)		78 432 299
Sum of discards (discard database) (tonnes)		6 824 186
Weighted mean of discard rates (weighted discard rate)		8.00%
Arithmetic mean of discard rates		14.59%
Fishstat ten-year average marine nominal catch 1992-2001 (tonnes)		83 805 355
Discard database landings as percentage of Fishstat ten-year average nominal catch		94%
Variance of discard rates (weighted mean)¹		0.057
Standard deviation (using the weighted mean)		0.238
Standard error of weighted mean		0.011
Confidence (95%) R -		- 0.059
Confidence (95%) R +		+ 0.101
Correlation coefficient		13.31
Range of total estimated discards (discard database):
	Lower	6 420 441
	Upper	7 512 897
Range for discard rate:
	Lower	7.57%
	Upper	8.74%
Range of discard rates applied to Fishstat ten-year average global catch:
	Lower	6 860 277
	Upper	8 027 573

¹Standard deviation and confidence limits have been calculated with reference to the weighted mean. The variance refers to that of discard rates in the discard database and does not reflect the internal variance of individual records.

Source: discard database.

A.2 DETAILS OF DISCARDS BY TYPE OF FISHERY

A.2.1 Trawl fisheries

TABLE 15
Shrimp trawl fisheries with highest discards (tonnes)

Country		Fishery	Period	Landings	Discard rate (%)	Discards
Tropical shrimp fisheries
	United States	Gulf of Mexico shrimp	2000	116 408	56.9	480 183
	Indonesia	Arafura Sea shrimp trawl	1998	53 786	81.7	239 594
	Ecuador	Ecuador industrial shrimp	1996	24 113	79.1	91 211
	Venezuela	East and west industrial shrimp trawl	1997	50 423	60.0	75 634
	United States	South Atlantic Shrimp	2000	14 646	83.3	73 230
Coldwater shrimp fisheries
	Peru	Industrial shrimp trawl	2000	17 405	81.0	74 200
	Argentina	Red shrimp tangoneros trawl	2000	36 823	50.1	37 000
	Portugal	Algarve Nephrops and deepwater shrimp	1996	5 543	70.0	35 000
	Japan	Small sail trawl	1994	388	95.7	8 691
	Norway	Shrimp trawl in Nordsjøen/Skagerakk	Annual average	6 000	51.2	6 300

Note: in addition the United Kingdom (Area 27) Nephrops fisheries have discards in the order of 30 000 tonnes.

TABLE 16
Non-shrimp trawl fisheries with highest discards (tonnes) and discard rates

Country		Fishery	Period	Landings	Discard rate (%)	Discards
Fisheries with highest discards
	All fleets	North Sea beam trawl (sole flatfish directed)	Average	148 261	69.0	330 000
	Japan	Small otter and beam trawl powered, other than shellfish	1994	166 584	60.5	254 874
	Argentina	Hake otter trawl south of 41^oS	1997	468 664	24.0	147 999
	United States	Washington, Oregon, California multispecies groundfish	2002	165 730	44.0	130 216
	Morocco	Industrial otter trawl demersal for cephalopods, Sparidae, hake	Recent average	96 771	30.0	95 565
Fisheries with highest discard rates
	France	Deepwater trawl western waters	1996	13 352	90.0	11 921
	Portugal	Tagus estuary beam trawl for flatfish and Crangon		1 750	90.0
	Bangladesh	Industrial finfish trawl for Saurida, Upeneus, Sepia	Average	7 140	83.0	34 860
	Belgium	Flatfish beam trawl	1999	23 000	75.0	69 000
	Brunei Darussalam	Multispecies finfish and penaeid trawl	1998	1 214	74.2	3 579
	United States	GOA catcher processor trawl Rex sole directed	2001	7 621	69.1	5 268

TABLE 17
Selected demersal otter trawl fisheries with high discards (tonnes)

Country	Fishery	Period	Landings	Discard rate (%)	Discards
Morocco	Foreign demersal multispecies¹	Recent average	146 746	30.0	106 308
Morocco	Industrial demersal for cephalopods, sparids and hake²	Recent average	96 771	30.0	95 565
France	Offshore multispecies demersal trawl for finfish and Nephrops	Recent average	162 484	28.1	63 502
Japan	Offshore trawl for walleye pollock, greenling and squid	1994	442 412	12.3	61 938
Bangladesh	Industrial finfish trawl for Saurida, Upeneus and Sepia	Average	7 140	83.0	34 860

¹Fishery now largely ceased. 2 Moroccan flag.

TABLE 18
Midwater (pelagic) trawl fisheries with highest discards (tonnes)

Country	Fishery	Period	Landings	Discard rate (%)	Discards
Morocco	Foreign Atlantic sardine, mackerel, horse mackerel	Recent average	724 680	2.5	35 982
Ireland	Mackerel, horse mackerel, blue whiting	2001	155 450	11.0	19 213
Netherlands	Horse mackerel	1994	110 000	11.8	14 717
France	Sardine and tuna	Recent average	22 637	37.7	13 698
France	Celtic Sea and Biscay	Recent average	35 506	26.3	12 671

TABLE 19
Selected trawl fisheries with high discards (tonnes)

Country	Fishery	Period	Landings	Discard rate (%)	Discards
Belgium	Flatfish (plaice, sole) beam trawl	1999	23 000	75.0	69 000
Japan	East China Sea distant water cephalopod trawl	1994	45 420	38.2	28 070
South Africa	Hake trawl	1996	258 509	14.0	31 951
Chile	Industrial hake trawl (Regions V to X)	2000	176 033	12.5	25 148
Argentina	Coastal iced fish hake trawl (costera)	2000	100 000	13.0	15 000
Peru	Industrial merluza trawl	2000	83 361	15.0	14 711
United States	BSAI catcher processor yellowfin sole trawl	2001	99 173	29.9	29 667
United States	BSAI catcher processor flathead sole trawl	2001	30 196	40.6	12 270

These tables may show apparent inconsistencies. These are generally due to the fact that one or more of the values (landing, discard quantities or discard rate) may be derived from different sources, e.g. one report may provide only a discard rate, while the quantity of discards may be derived from a different source.

A.2.2 Other types of fisheries

TABLE 20
Discard rates and discards in other fisheries

Fishery	Discard rate for set of all records with a discard rate			Discard rate and discards for set of complete records¹
Fishery	Average discard rate (%)	No. records	Standard deviation	Landings (tonnes)	Discards (tonnes)	Weighted discard rate (%)¹
Midwater trawl fisheries
Tuna midwater trawl		4		62 050	26 532	30.0
Small pelagics midwater trawl	5.7	19	0.07	2 763 040	101 285	3.5
Net fisheries (other)
Tuna purse seine	4.85	12	0.02	2 673 378	144 152	5.1
Small pelagics seine	2.0	52	0.03	21 664 338	351 111	1.6
Beach seine	31.9	6	0.27	23 061	1 068	4.4
Gillnet	7.2	48	0.12	3 350 299	29 004	0.5
Line fisheries
Tuna pole and line	0.1	11	0.003	818 505	3 121	0.4
Tuna longline	22.0	37	0.16	1 403 591	560 481	29
Non-tuna line fisheries	8.5	50	0.12	581 560	47 257	7.5
Bottom longline (all)	8.2	20	0.08	209 927	10 988	7.5
Handline	1.8	16	0.02	155 211	3 149	2.0
Squid jig	0.2	9	0.004	1 134 432	1 671	0.1
Finfish jig	1.1	5	0.021	19 296	710	3.5
Dredge, pot and other fisheries
Dredge (scallop, clam, whelk)	24.8	10	0.17	165 660	65 373	28
Hand collection	0.8	16	0.02	256 879	899	0.3
Crustacean pots (lobster, crab)	12.4	12	0.14	185 547	71 077	27.7
Multigear and/or multispecies²	2.4	109	0.07	6 023 146	85 436	1.4

¹Records with landings, discards and discard rate. 2Non-trawl fisheries.

TABLE 21
Discard rates and discards in gillnet fisheries

Country	Fishery	Period	Landings	Discard rate (%)	Discards
Fisheries with highest discards
China	Chinese small drift gillnet	2000	2 288 713	0.5	11 501
Canada	Greenland halibut gillnet	1994	10 455	23.1	3 137
Norway	Cod gillnet in north Norway	Annual average	31 000	9.1	3 100
	Bottom gillnet for cod, saithe, haddock
Iceland	and ling	2001	63 665	3.0	1 969
	Surface and bottom gillnet for flatfish,
France	pollock, cod and tuna	Average	26 722	6.1	1 736
Fisheries with highest discard rates
United States	California drift gillnet for swordfish			66.0	n.a.
United States	Northeast bottom multispecies (sink) gillnet			31.0	n.a.
EU Mediterranean countries	Cuttlefish trammel			25.5	n.a.
Canada	Greenland halibut gillnet (cod, pollock)	1994	10 455	23.1	3 137
Norway	Lumpfish gillnet	Average	300	23.1	90

TABLE 22
Percentages of hake discards by year class in the Argentine hake trawl fishery

Year/year class	0	1	2	3
1990	0.82	85	14	0.21
1991	0.94	89	10	0.12
1992	0.83	86	13	0.15
1993	0.90	88	11	0.09
1994	0.92	81	18	0.49
1995	0.90	84	14	0.34
1996	0.93	90	9	0.19
1997	1.27	93	5	0

Source: Dato, Villarino and Cañete, 2000.

FIGURE 2
Percentage of discards by year class in the Argentinian hake fishery (1990-97)

A.3 DISCARDS BY LARGE MARINE ECOSYSTEM

TABLE 23
Indicative discards by large marine ecosystem (LME)

Number	LME	Recorded discards (tonnes)
22	North Sea	909 109
5	Gulf of Mexico	513 597
13	Humboldt Current	439 371
52	Sea of Okhotsk	361 905
27	Canary	269 205
1	East Bering Sea	156 551
3	California Current	150 161
11	Pacific Central-American coastal	139 396
14	Patagonian shelf	138 126
17	North Brazil shelf	136 740
34	Bay of Bengal (including Malaysia)	130 713
32	Arabian Sea	130 272
12	Caribbean Sea	130 184
4/5	Gulf of California/Gulf of Mexico¹	119 166
24	Celtic-Biscay shelf	100 893
29	Benguela Current	95 896
7/8/9	Northeast USA, Scotian, Newfoundland/Labrador¹	80 151
6	Southeast United States, continental	78 745
30	Agulhas Current	59 899
40	Northeast Australian shelf - Great Barrier Reef	47 655
59	Iceland shelf	45 564
39	North Australian shelf	42 750
2	Gulf of Alaska	41 918
28	Guinea Current	40 513
24	Celtic-Biscay	37 168
25	Iberian coastal	35 605
42	Southeast Australian shelf	32 976
36/37/38	South China, Sulu-Celebes, Indonesian Seas¹	30 818
36	South China Sea	21 405
15	South Brazil shelf	20 372
26	Mediterranean	17 239
23	Baltic Sea	14 203
20	Barents Sea	13 455
7	Northeast United States, continental	11 533
31	Somali Current	8 874
36/37	South China, Sulu-Celebes Seas¹	7 521
16	East Brazil shelf	7 062
21	Norwegian shelf	5 840
33	Red Sea	4 832
61	Antarctic	2 079
19	East Greenland shelf	1 770
9	Newfoundland/Labrador shelf	1 242
62	Black Sea	715
-	Other LMEs	676
-	Outside LMEs or not attributable to an LME¹	2 227 489
	Total	6 824 186

¹As some fisheries harvest from more than one LME, discards in certain areas are difficult to attribute by LME, e.g. distribution of Malaysian discards between the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea.

Source: discard database.

FIGURE 3
Recorded discards by large marine ecosystem

A.4 DISCARDS BY COUNTRY AND IN LOW INCOME FOOD DEFICIT COUNTRIES (LIFDCS)

TABLE 24
Landings, discards (tonnes) and weighted discard rate by country or area (EEZ, not flag state)

Country¹	Landings	Discards	Discard rate (%)
American Samoa	460	0	0.0
Angola	232 325	46 594	16.7
Anguilla	225	0	0.0
Antigua and Barbuda	1 369	0	0.0
Argentina	622 964	109 000	14.9
Aruba	168	0	0.0
Australia	97 644	120 981	55.3
Bahamas	10 253	0	0.0
Bahrain	8 164	2 571	24.0
Bangladesh	314 966	64 578	17.0
Barbados	3 316	0	0.0
Belize	111	284	71.9
Benin	8 146	41	0.5
Bermuda	430	0	0.0
Brazil	480 574	54 892	10.3
British Virgin Islands	236	0	0.0
Brunei Darussalam	1 214	3 579	74.7
Bulgaria	3 353	436	11.5
Cambodia	49 343	0	0.0
Cameroon	61 407	367	0.6
Canada	789 061	90 021	10.2
Cape Verde	10 881	54	0.5
Cayman Islands	123	0	0.0
Chile	4 360 251	89 155	2.0
China	14 777 934	74 261	0.5
Colombia	9 095	14 377	61.3
Comoros	6 951	35	0.5
Cook Islands	836	0	0.0
Costa Rica	2 683	2 437	47.6
Côte d’Ivoire	30 000	151	0.5
Cuba	19 227	0	0.0
Djibouti	350	0	0.0
Dominica	1 104	0	0.0
Dominican Republic	942	3 964	80.8
Ecuador	24 113	91 211	79.1
El Salvador	37 678	10 397	21.6
Equatorial Guinea	5 400	27	0.5
Eritrea	16 989	3 792	18.2
EU (NEI*)	12 211	8 135	40.0
Falklands/Malvinas	228 417	11 127	4.6
Fiji Islands	20 832	0	0.0
Finland	104 000	200	0.2
France	729 517	194 268	21.0
France (Réunion)	2 722	27	1.0
French Guyana	9 324	49 822	84.2
French Polynesia	6 631	0	0.0
Gabon	25 000	253	1.0
Gambia	39 098	5 124	11.6
Ghana	105 936	1 445	1.3
Greece	35 000	17 070	32.8
Grenada	1 661	0	0.0
Guadeloupe	9 641	0	0.0
Guam	472	0	0.0
Guatemala	16 100	50 950	76.0
Guinea	103 913	16 684	13.8
Guinea-Bissau	50 021	18 500	27.0
Guyana	26 870	29 960	52.7
Haiti	398	1 402	77.9
Honduras	11 815	27 335	69.8
Iceland	1 969 672	45 564	2.3
India	2 849 066	57 917	2.0
Indonesia	3 104 788	270 412	8.0
Iran, Islamic Rep. of	43 272	29 208	40.3
Ireland	214 903	29 569	12.1
Japan	6 491 001	918 436	12.4
Jordan	116	0	0.0
Kenya	8 272	2 940	26.2
Kiribati	16 000	0	0.0
Korea, Dem. Rep. of	221 253	1 112	0.5
Korea, Rep. of	197 913	995	0.5
Kuwait	5 602	41 980	88.2
Liberia	4 494	23	0.5
Madagascar	69 184	31 618	31.4
Malaysia	1 027 276	10 377	1.0
Maldives	12 599	59	0.5
Marshall Islands	3 273	0	0.0
Martinique	5 352	0	0.0
Mauritania	15 000	75	0.5
Mauritius	10 694	54	0.5
Mexico	541 423	137 873	20.3
Micronesia, Fed. States	5 000	0	0.0
Montserrat	46	0	0.0
Morocco	924 450	222 457	19.4
Mozambique	68 787	26 525	27.8
Myanmar	880 594	27 371	3.0
Namibia	522 557	13 454	2.5
Nauru	425	0	0.0
Netherlands	110 000	14 717	11.8
New Caledonia	3 418	0	0.0
Nicaragua	5 776	6 346	52.4
Nigeria	190 722	2 792	1.4
Niue	206	0	0.0
Norfolk Island	0	0	0.0
Northern Mariana Is.	2 966	0	0.0
Norway	2 516 350	102 611	3.9
Oman	135 957	1 384	1.0
Pakistan	228 676	35 467	13.4
Palau	2 103	0	0.0
Panama	101 964	33 483	24.7
Papua New Guinea	33 167	6 150	15.6
Peru	10 291 633	350 215	3.3
Philippines	744 583	7 521	1.0
Pitcairn Islands	8	0	0.0
Portugal	6 303	35 605	85.0
Russian Federation	400 000	361 905	47.5
Saint Helena	781	0	0.0
Saint Kitts and Nevis	295	0	0.0
Saint Lucia	1 621	0	0.0
Samoa	7 190	0	0.0
Saudi Arabia	24 833	1 014	3.9
Senegal	376 153	25 209	6.3
Seychelles	4 433	22	0.5
Sierra Leone	45 910	231	0.5
Solomon Islands	16 634	0	0.0
Somalia	4 000	0	0.0
South Africa	872 935	37 570	4.1
Spain	6 343	212	3.2
Sri Lanka	274 760	1 367	0.5
Sudan	5 094	26	0.5
Suriname	5 500	29 500	84.3
Syrian Arab Republic	2 408	12	0.5
Tanzania, United Rep.	51 147	5 934	10.4
Thailand	2 752 878	27 807	1.0
Timor-Leste	381	2	0.5
Tokelau	200	0	0.0
Tonga	7 036	0	0.0
Trinidad and Tobago	6 639	8 859	57.2
Tunisia	29 295	147	0.5
Turkey	282 150	279	0.1
Turks and Caicos Is.	1 310	0	0.0
Tuvalu	1 100	0	0.0
United Kingdom	27 343	16 654	37.9
United States	3 344 438	927 599	21.7
Uruguay	112 572	18 649	14.2
Vanuatu	2 930	0	0.0
Venezuela	213 025	96 820	31.2
Viet Nam	3 547 346	17 826	0.5
Wallis and Futuna Is.	917	0	0.0
Yemen	50 523	531	1.0
Total	69 580 728	5 207 041	7.0

* NEI: not elsewhere included

¹LIFDCs are shaded in the table.

Values presented for landings are only those corresponding to the discards recorded in the discards database. The discard rates presented do not represent the aggregate discard rate for a country's fisheries.

Table 24 is provided for record purposes only. Because of the bias in the discard database towards fisheries that discard, discard rates and total discards on a country-by-country basis are not necessarily representative of total discards or discard rate of the aggregate fisheries of the country. Only complete records are used in the table so that some fisheries with high discard rates, but for which landings information is unavailable are not included. The table excludes tuna and HMS fisheries.

Table 24 also highlights discard information from low income food deficient countries (LIFDCs). The table does not provide a total of discards from these countries but is intended to draw attention to countries and fisheries where further actions may be directed to improve bycatch utilization. As the table is based only on records where the volume of discards is available certain fisheries are not included.

A.5 DISCARDED SPECIES AND INCIDENTAL CATCHES

TABLE 25
Commonly discarded species in different fisheries (indicative)

Fishery	Commonly discarded species
Penaeid shrimp trawl	Small finfish caught as bycatch. Species groups include Leiognathidae (ponyfish), Nemipteridae (threadfin), Trichurius sp. (hairtails), Decapterus sp., Saurida sp. (Synodontidae), small shrimp, sharks and rays, as well as jellyfish and juveniles of many commercial whitefish species such as croakers, snappers, and emperors
Nephrops trawl	Juvenile whiting, haddock, cod; broken, undersized Nephrops and flatfish
Finfish (roundfish) trawl fisheries	Juvenile commercial species, in particular demersal species such as whiting, haddock, hake, Sciaenidae and lower value commercial species such as horse mackerel, Rastrelliger and elasmobranchs
Hake trawl	Small hake and horse mackerel (all fisheries), kingklip and rattails (Africa), arrowtooth flounder, dogfish and ratfish (North Pacific)
Flatfish trawl	Juveniles and target species under MLS; molluscs, echinoderms (sand urchins and starfish), crabs, rajids. Cod, haddock, whiting, plaice, saithe, dab, dogfish, shrimp and Nephrops (EU). Arrowtooth flounder is a major component of discards in the GOA/BSAI fisheries for yellowfin sole, flathead sole and other flatfish
Deepwater trawl	Teleosts including grenadiers, whiptails, rabbitfish and oreos; chondrichthyans such as birdbeak dogfish (Deania), batoids and chimaeroids
Small pelagics midwater trawl	Small sizes of target species and non-target species such as horse mackerel in mackerel fisheries, horse mackerel (EU countries), sardine, pilchard, mackerel and sprat. Small-sized fish of the target species may be discarded as a result of highgrading in the quota-managed European fisheries or because processing equipment cannot handle smaller sizes. Dolphins (1.4 dolphins/100 tow-hours in French and Irish tuna fisheries) and sunfish are caught incidentally
Purse seine for small pelagics	Primarily non-target small pelagics including horse mackerel, Scomber japonicus, Boops, Belone sp., jellyfish, juveniles of other species and small quantities of sharks
Tuna purse seine	Non-commercial tunas (e.g. bonito, dogtooth tuna), rainbow runner, dolphinfish, jacks, shark, billfish, mantas and undersized skipjack and yellowfin, dolphins. Large quantities of jellyfish are discarded in the bluefish and bonito fisheries in Turkish waters. Incidental catches of dolphins
Tuna/HMS longline fisheries	The principal discards include Prionace glauca (blue shark), which is probably the most commonly discarded species, Carcharinus sp. and other sharks, shark/ marine mammal-damaged fish, albatross, petrels and other seabirds. Frigate tuna, Kawakawa, Indo-Pacific king mackerel, and narrow-barred Spanish mackerel
Bottom longline	Non-quota species. Arrowtooth flounder GOA/BSAI fisheries), starry ray, dab and redfish (Iceland, Faeroe Islands), hake, shark and kingclip (South Africa), and macrourids and rajids in the CCAMLR area
Gillnet fisheries	Dogfish, skate, sculpin (Canada), cod, haddock, plaice, saithe and dab (Europe)
United States Northwest	Molluscs and crustaceans. Trawlers are obliged to discard large volumes of
Pacific groundfish fisheries	crabs. Many species of discarded shellfish survive.¹ These include lobster, crab, scallop and oyster. Discard estimates can prove difficult if landings are expressed in numbers, weight of meat or volume (e.g. in bushels)
Otter trawl ICES VIIe, f,h	Benthos discarded included echinoderms, Marthasterias glacialis, Asterias rubens, Ophiura ophiura and whelk (Buccinum undatum) (Lart et al., 2002b)

¹Shrimp, giant spider crabs and ascidians have a high mortality. In the Bass Straits scallop dredge fishery under 3 percent of dredged items are bycatch, most of which are undamaged when discarded.

TABLE 26
Incidental catch of seabirds, turtles and marine mammals in selected fisheries

Fishery	Species	Incidental catch rate	Measures/notes	Source
Danish bottom set gillnet	Harbour porpoise	Mean 5, 129 (1987-2001)	Use of pingers in cod/wreck fishery judged 100% effective	STECF/SGFEN (2002), quoting Vinther and Larsen, 2002
Netherlands horse mackerel trawl	Dolphin	Nine dolphins in six tows		BIOECO/93/017 Morizur et al., 1996
France hake pelagic trawl	Dolphin	1.2 dolphins/100 tow-hours		BIOECO/93/017 (data 1994) Morizur et al., 1996
France pelagic trawl for seabass	Dolphin	1.5 dolphins/100 tow-hours		BIOECO/93/017 (data 1994) Morizur et al., 1996
Ireland albacore midwater trawl	Dolphin	1.4 dolphin/100 tow-hours (French), sunfish	No bluefin quota except as bycatch	BIOECO/93/017 (data 1994) Morizur et al., 1996
United Kingdom bass pelagic trawl - English Channel	Dolphin	61 common dolphin in 122 monitored tows, 2001 and 2002	Tows in mackerel, pilchard and blue whiting fisheries monitored but 0 mortality	STECF/SGFEN, 2002
Netherlands pelagic freezer trawl	Dolphin, pilot whale	Eight white-sided dolphin, common dolphin, pilot whale, 0.06 mm per haul	Observer reports, study of seasons and distribution of interaction	Couperus, 1997 (data 1995-1996)
Spain longline	Mammals, seabirds, turtles	Mammals, seabirds, turtles		Caswell et al., 1998
France thonaille	Dolphin	0.6-1.2 per 100 tuna caught Stenella coeruleoalba (striped dolphin)	Mandatory pingers, ACCOBAMS	STECF/SGFEN, 2002
Australia states Queensland inshore commercial	Dugong	n.a.		Harris, A. 1997
United States Western Pacific pelagic longline	Seabirds, albatross	3 073 albatross (two spp.). 0.013 (tuna sets) to 0.76 (swordfish sets) birds per set	See FMP and EIA	NMFS/NOAA, 2001 (data 1994-1999)
United States Pacific halibut birds	Birds	6.1 per mill. Hooks	Tori lines, research on video monitoring, fisher interviews	IPHC Web site (Alaska) fisher interviews
Peru small-scale longline - northern Peru	Waved albatross (Diomedea irrorata)	0.74 to 1.75 birds/1 000 hooks	Change from gillnetting to avoid cetacean bycatch, fisher interviews	Guillen, Jahncke and Goya, 2000, p. 132 (data 1999)
United States Atlantic HMS	Birds, turtles	1 307 turtles, 48 birds, 200 marine mammals		US bycatch matrix
Spain Mediterranean swordfish longline	Turtles	0.18-2.73 per 1 000 hooks		Cramer, Bertolino and Scott, 1995 (data 1986-1995)
Spain Mediterranean surface and bottom longline	Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea)	0.16 to 0.69 birds per 1 000 hooks	437-1 836 shearwaters killed annually in the area	Belda and Sanchez, 2001
All SPC tuna purse seine	Marine mammals	3.8 per 1 000 sets	SPC observer data	P. Sharples SPC, pers. comm. (observer data 1997-2003)
All SPC tuna purse seine	Turtles	0.9 per 1 000 sets	SPC observer data	P. Sharples SPC, pers. comm. (observer data 1997-2003)
All SPC tuna longline	Birds	0.12 per 1 000 hooks	SPC observer data	P. Sharples SPC, pers. comm. (observer data 1997-2003)
All SPC tuna longline	Reptiles	0.02 per 1 000 hooks	SPC observer data	P. Sharples SPC, pers. comm. (observer data 1997-2003)
All SPC tuna longline	Marine mammals	0.02 per 1 000 hooks	High % alive when hauling, survival rate unknown	P. Sharples SPC, pers. comm. (observer data 1997-2003)
IATTC purse seine	Dolphins	2 129 dolphins killed	Quota, international agreement, observers, experimental fishing	IATTC, 2001 (data 1999)
United States/IATTC tuna dolphin set purse seine	Dolphins encircled	2.34 million per year - number encircled, most are released, >300 per set	See IATTC rules	Southwest Fisheries Science Center, 2002 (data average of programme years)

Notes

With regard to the absolute levels of cetacean and endangered species discards, it should be noted that the entanglement and mortality of, for example, a single North Atlantic right whale (population 300) is of greater concern than the capture of several common dolphins (population 200 000 in the area).

Records of discards of lesser-known aquatic animals such as saltwater crocodiles and sea snakes are uncommon.

Source: discard database.

A.6 EXAMPLES OF TRENDS IN DISCARD REDUCTION AND INCREASE

As this report gives a substantially lower estimate of global discards, further evidence of this reduction is provided in Table 27.

TABLE 27
Examples of discard reduction in selected fisheries

Area	Fishery	Discard reduction	Period	Principal reasons	Source
21	Canada northern shrimp	Bycatch reduced from 15.2 to 5.6% of catch. “... groundfish mortality in Canadian shrimp fisheries has been reduced markedly, and virtually eliminated in the sensitive groundfish areas”	1991-1994	BRD (Nordmore); reduction in groundfish stocks, responsible fishing practices, requirement to change area	Duthie, 1997a
21	US Atlantic pelagic longline	16.5% for pelagic shark 22.1% for large coastal shark	2001 compared to 1999-2000 average	Time, area closures	NMFS/NOAA, 2003
27	France Nephrops and whitefish trawl	86-100% of fishers believe that discarding has declined	2000		Agricultural Economics Research Institute, 2000
27	Norway shrimp trawl	... greatly reduced, resulting in improved catch handling times and quality of the shrimp catch	n.a.	Sort-X^TM BRD	MacMullen, 1998
31	Central American shrimp fisheries	“... [bycatch]...caught was still high (between 90 and 97% of the total catch) but ... utilization of the bycatch has increased”		Growing consumption of bycatch	FAO workshop, Cuba, 1997
31	Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl (United States)	40% reduction in finfish bycatch mortality; 10% increase in shrimp catch (2001); red snapper (main discard) landings doubled	In comparison with1998 levels	FMP and BRDs	Federal Register, 2003, p. 11512
41	Argentina	Juvenile hake	Late 1990s	Use of BRDs	IMARPE
47	South Africa, West Coast rock lobster	Major reduction in discards in late 1990s		Increase in MLS	Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management Ltd, 2003, p.75
51	Madagascar shrimp trawl	Bycatch reduced by 49%	2000	Use of BRDs	Mounsey, 2000
57	India - Visak shrimp freezer trawl	Early 1990s		Freezer fleet has disappeared	BOBP-IGO, pers. comm.
57	Myanmar trawlers	60% down to 7-8% for trawl fleet	Mid-1990s to 2003	Building of fishmeal plants, use for animal/fish feed/human consumption	Myanmar Fisheries Federation, 2003, pers. comm.
67	BSAI/GOA	See Tables 28 and 29
71	Western Central Pacific	“... available quantitative information indicates that there has been a considerable increase in the utilization of the fishery catch over the last decade”	1986-1996		Harris, 1997
87	Peru hake demersal trawl	A “significant reduction” from 30% in 1996	1996 - late 1990s	Use of juveniles and other bycatch for surimi and fish blocks	R.G. Carrasco, IMARPE, pers. comm.
	United States (in general)	“In general, discard levels in the United States have declined over the past several years”	1994-1998	“... [attributed to] ... new technologies and management measures ... decline in stocks ... increased retention of fish previously discarded”	Alverson, 1998
	Various countries	Unknown		Legislation designed to reduce bycatch and/or discards in place in over 30 countries Bycatch reduction programmes in over 20 countries	Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management Ltd, 2003
	Global/high seas shark	Unknown	2000-2003	Implementation of the IPOA on sharks. United States, EU, Costa Rica and others require landing of carcasses	United States legislation, Council Regulation (EC), 2003

A.6.1 Declining discards in Alaskan and United States West Coast fisheries

The walleye (Alaska) pollock fishery in the North Pacific is the world’s largest demersal whitefish fishery. Over 90 percent of landings are harvested by midwater trawl and the fishery represents approximately 25 percent of United States landings by volume. The following tables show the decline in certain categories of discards in recent years in the BSAI fishery.

TABLE 28
Estimated pollock and non-target groundfish total and discarded catch in directed BSAI pollock fisheries from 1997 to 2000 (tonnes)

Year	Total catch	Total discarded	Discards (% total catch)
1997	1 097 657	41 505	3.78
1998	1 022 374	10 472	1.02
1999	957 713	9 704	1.01
2000	1 109 250	12 81	1.1

Source: Bernstein et al., 2002 (Table 7).

TABLE 29
Average rate of incidental catch of halibut, crab and salmon in the directed BSAI pollock fishery from 1997 to 2000

Year	Per tonne of groundfish
Year	Halibut (kg)	Numbers of crab	Numbers of salmon
1997	0.243	0.026	0.062
1998	0.345	0.070	0.066
1999	0.180	0.003	0.077
2000	0.112	0.001	0.062

Note: all incidental catch of these species must be discarded.
Source: Bernstein et al., 2002 (Table 9).

Reasons for the reduction in BSAI/GOA discards

The reasons for these declines are closely linked to the management regimes for the BSAI/GOA fisheries and require some understanding of the complex nature and history of these fisheries (see references for details). Some of the principal reasons for effective bycatch management are that:

BSAI/GOA fish stocks are not overfished;^[134]
there are strong incentives for bycatch reduction;
enforcement is effective;
bycatch is cooperatively managed; and
fishery bycatch information is used as a real-time management tool.

Incentives

When bycatch limits on crab, salmon and halibut are reached, the legislation requires that the fishery be closed, creating a strong incentive to avoid bycatch. The bycatch of individual vessels is published, creating peer pressure on vessel operators.

Effective enforcement

A 100 percent observer coverage (larger vessels) ensures that all bycatch and discards are recorded. Demersal finfish discards are recorded by weight. Salmon and crab discards are recorded by number. Regulations require that all salmon, crab and halibut be discarded. Vessel operators actively cooperate with observers to ensure that discard records are accurate.

Cooperative management of the bycatch allocation

The Pollock Conservation Cooperative (PCC) and High Sea Catcher’s Cooperative (Joint Report of the Pollock Conservation Cooperative and High Sea Catcher’s Cooperative, 2002), operational since 1999, effectively acts as a voluntary/cooperative ITQ system, giving many of the benefits of an ITQ system to the eight PCC members, which control approximately 37 percent of the catch allocation of the directed pollock fishery.

The members contract a private firm to which observer data, including bycatch data, are uploaded once or twice a day. Two observers on board each vessel sample 98.9 percent of hauls. Groundfish discards are less than 0.5 percent. Information on bycatch levels is shared between operators in near real time, identifying bycatch “hotspots” and allowing vessels to move rapidly to grounds with low bycatch. The cooperative arrangement has forfeiture (penalty) clauses for breach of bycatch limits and there has been full compliance with these limits. The benefits of the cooperative management regime have included:

improved processing yield (larger fish) and more time to search for larger fish (no “race for fish”);
processing at optimum speed for product quality and yield (recovery rate);
reduced capitalization in vessels and processing equipment (although there was increased investment to vary product mix and meet market requirements);
substantial contributions to fisheries research;
reduced bycatch of unwanted species through movement to low bycatch areas; and
reduction of the Olympic-style fishery (race for fish), reduction of over 30 percent in effort and increased economic rent generation

Similar cooperative arrangements with regard to bycatch exist in the Pacific whiting fishery (see Box 7), Weathervane scallop fishery in the United States (Brawn and Scheirer, 2002) and the Hoki fishery in New Zealand (Hoki Fishery Management Company, 2003).

BOX 7
Pacific Whiting Fish Harvesting Cooperative

Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative (PWCC) members have achieved significant reductions in bycatch. Pacific whiting, like Bering Sea pollock, is harvested using midwater trawl nets. Bycatch rates for both fisheries are from 1 to 2 percent. The whiting catcher/processor fleet operating within the construct of a cooperative achieves even greater bycatch reductions. The bycatch rate for yellowtail rockfish decreased by more than 60 percent from 2.47 kg of yellowtail rock per tonne of whiting under the race for fish to 0.96 kg per tonne under the cooperative arrangement. During the same period, yellowtail rockfish bycatch by smaller trawl vessels delivering to mother ships increased from 3.43 to 6.51 kg per tonne.

A major contributor to the reduction in bycatch is the fisher’s ability to discontinue fishing in high bycatch areas without sacrificing harvesting opportunities. To help avoid bycatch “hotspots”, PWCC members report catch and bycatch data electronically to Sea State, a private sector firm specializing in fisheries data collection and analysis. Sea State collates the data and reports back to PWCC vessels on a “real-time” basis, advising vessel captains to avoid areas in which high bycatch is likely to occur. Because they do not have to race for fish, boats can take the time to move to areas with low bycatch.

A.6.2 Examples of increases in discards

There are few examples of fisheries with increasing discards. Some deepwater fisheries are producing discards that did not hitherto exist, although active market promotion is under way for such unfamiliar species. Quota restrictions in EU fisheries are resulting in high discard rates, although overfishing reduces the absolute quantity of discards. There is evidence of substantial discarding in a number of major fisheries in the Russian Far East.

^[134] Out of 244 fish stocks only two are considered to be overfished (NMFS, 2001).

Annex A Results: supplementary tables

Annex A
Results: supplementary tables