Publications

Threat Abatement Plan for the Incidental Catch (or by-catch) of Seabirds During Oceanic Longline Fishing Operations

Prepared by
Biodiversity Group Environment Australia in consultation with the Threat Abatement Team
Environment Australia, 1998
ISBN 0 642 21420 4

6. Existing Measures to Address the Key Threatening Process (continued)

C. Education

Background

Effective abatement of the threat to seabirds from longline by-catch relies on correct implementation of mitigation strategies by the longline fishers as part of their everyday operations. This Plan prescribes actions which will facilitate this by providing fishers with education material and an extension program to ensure that they are aware of their obligations and correct procedures for meeting them.

Existing Practices

The Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service has worked with the longline fishing industry and AFMA to develop education materials highlighting the bird by-catch problem and potential solutions. These include the booklet 'Catch fish not birds' written by Nigel Brothers for Japanese fishers and adapted for domestic and Spanish fishers, stickers and brochures, port meetings with fishers and at-sea demonstration of mitigation measures.

D. Information

Background

There are a number of areas of uncertainty in the management of seabird by-catch in longline fisheries. The reliability of by-catch data available is also questionable.

Existing Practices

Currently AFMA manages an observer program on the Japanese longline fishing fleet within the AFZ that aims at 10% coverage of the total number of hooks hauled during each season (A. de Fries, AFMA observer program coordinator, pers. comm.). This "level and distribution of coverage provides a reasonable indication of the magnitude of the seabird by-catch within the AFZ" (Klaer and Polacheck 1995). However, this program was established principally to collect data on fish and not on seabird by-catch. Currently, there is no observer program for either the domestic pelagic or demersal fleet. Domestic and foreign longline vessels operating in the AFZ provide data to AFMA via a log book system. The fisher records the following information in the logbook:

• fishing effort
• location
• methods including bait details
• catch information including target species and species caught
• wildlife interactions - for albatrosses and other seabirds and other wildlife recording number caught, life status on release and other comments

Under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1975 fishers are obliged to report all catch of species protected under that legislation. This protection includes all species of seabirds.