ACAP to attend Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting next month

The 10th Regular Session of the Scientific Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC-SC10) will meet in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands from 6 to 14 August.  ACAP’s Executive Secretary, Warren Papworth will attend the meeting where a discussion is expected on the report (EB-GN-03) of a working group on electronic reporting and monitoring.

Under its Ecosystems and Bycatch Mitigation Theme the WCPFC Scientific Committee will also consider paper EB-IP-01 (previously published in the on-line journal PLoS One) by Eric Gilman and colleagues on the subject of mitigating seabird bycatch during hauling by pelagic longline vessels.

Another paper, authored by the National Research Institute of Far Sea Fisheries, addresses the utilization of mitigation techniques to reduce seabird bycatch in Japanese small-sized longline vessels (EB-WP-07).  The paper’s abstract follows:

“To discuss effective and suitable seabird bycatch mitigation measures for small sized longline vessels (< 20 tonnage), information of utilization of seabird mitigation techniques voluntarily used in seventeen vessels were collected from a hearing [sic] survey.  In all vessels fishermen used tori-line (bird-scaring line) and they deployed three types of tori-lines (with streamers, without streamers and direct connection of long streamers on poles).  Many fishermen concerned entanglement tori-line materials with main line of longline in the rough sea hence attachment of streamers on tori-lines for small vessels should be carefully considered.  In order to attain effective sink rate for branch line, seven vessels (41%) used weighed branch line and five vessels (29%) used fluorocarbon for branch line.  In addition, this some vessels tried strategic offal discharge to put seabird assemblage away from line setting area.  These information are useful to develop suitable mitigation techniques in small sized longline vessels.  Some of measures introduced in that fishery are worth to examine for effectiveness.”

A third paper (EB-WP-06) from the National Taiwan Ocean University reports on seabird (including albatross) and sea turtle bycatch by Taiwanese tuna longline fleets in the Pacific Ocean.

A fourth paper (EB-IP-10) from the USA considers seabird interaction rates in the Hawaii‐based shallow and deep‐set longline fisheries by vessel size as estimated from observer data over the period 2004 to 2013.

Click here to access an earlier report in ACAP Latest News on e-monitoring by the WCPFC.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 July 2014