Responsible Fishing Practices for Sustainable Fisheries

International Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries

1998 FAO

Seabirds are being incidentally caught in various commercial longline fisheries in the world, and concerns are arising about the impacts of this incidental catch. Incidental catch of seabirds may also have an adverse impact on fishing productivity and profitability. Governments, non-governmental organizations, and commercial fishery associations are petitioning for measures to reduce the mortality of seabirds in longline fisheries in which seabirds are incidentally taken.

Key longline fisheries in which incidental catch of seabirds are known to occur are: tuna, swordfish and billfish in some particular parts of oceans; Patagonian toothfish in the Southern Ocean, and halibut, black cod, Pacific cod, Greenland halibut, cod, haddock, tusk and ling in the northern oceans (Pacific and Atlantic). The species of seabirds most frequently taken are albatrosses and petrels in the Southern Ocean, northern fulmars in the North Atlantic and albatrosses, gulls and fulmars in the North Pacific fisheries.

Responding to the need to reduce the incidental catch of seabirds in commercial fisheries in the Southern Ocean, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) adopted mitigation measures in 1992 for its 23 member countries to reduce incidental catch of seabirds.

Under the auspices of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), Australia, Japan and New Zealand have studied and taken seabird mitigation measures in their southern bluefin tuna longline fishery since 1994, and in 1995 CCSBT adopted a recommendation relating to ecologically related species, including the incidental mortality of seabirds by longline fishing. The recommendation stipulates a policy on data and information collection, mitigation measures, as well as education and information dissemination. All member nations of CCSBT have made the use of bird scaring lines (tori poles) mandatory in their fisheries.

The United States of America also adopted, by regulation, measures for reducing incidental catch of seabirds for its groundfish longline fisheries in Seabirds are being incidentally caught in various commercial longline the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska in 1997, and for its halibut fishery in 1998. The United States is currently developing measures to mitigate the incidental catch of seabirds in the Hawaiian pelagic longline fisheries. Several other countries with longline fisheries have likewise adopted similar mitigation measures.

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