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A South American Workshop funded by the Albatross and Petrel Agreement as the first phase of Project ACAP 09-10 Improving Data Collection on Incidental Mortality of Seabirds from South American Observer Programmes was recently held in Buenos Aires, Argentina between 14 and 16 September 2010.

The meeting took place at the San Martín Palace of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was attended by representatives of all six of the South American Parties to ACAP (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay).

The workshop was formally opened by Dr Homero Bibiloni (Secretary of Environment, Argentina), Ambassador Silvia Merega (Director of Environmental Affairs) and Dr Ramiro Sánchez (Under- Secretariat of Fisheries), and was chaired by María Laura Tombesi (Secretariat of Environment, Argentina), Dr Oli Yates (BirdLife International) and Dr Marco Favero (ACAP).

The objective of the workshop was to improve data collection on seabird mortality in fisheries by observer programmes in the South American region.  This was the first time heads and key stakeholders of observer programmes in southern South America have come together to discuss strategies in order to harmonize data collection protocols and databases. 

The workshop constituted an excellent opportunity to revise ACAP databases on fisheries and impacts on albatrosses and petrels, as well as to agree on future actions to tackle the problem of incidental mortality in fisheries at a regional scale.

Marco Favero, Chair, ACAP Advisory Committee, 28 October 2010