Pelagic longline fisheries in the Southern Hemisphere catch at least 30,000 seabirds a year as bycatch, according to a new assessment by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), carried out with support from the Tuna Project of FAO's Common Oceans Program. The study analysed 10 billion hooks of fishing effort and nearly 10,000 observed seabird captures.
The assessment covered longline fishing south of the equator from 2012 to 2023, combining observer data from six CCSBT members and Brazil with maps of seabird density. It weighed each species' vulnerability to capture against the size of its population, and identified hotspots of bycatch risk in parts of the Tasman Sea, the southern Indian Ocean and the southeast Atlantic. Albatrosses were hit particularly hard, among them Gibson's, Amsterdam, Tristan, Atlantic yellow-nosed and sooty albatrosses.
"The findings give managers a stronger evidence base to focus mitigation and monitoring efforts to reduce seabird mortality," said Manuel Barange, Assistant Director-General and Director of FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture Division. Jonathon Barrington, executive secretary of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, said albatrosses and petrels are the most threatened seabirds in the world, with some species critically endangered.
The measures that work are well known. Tori lines with streamers scare birds away from baited hooks, weighted branch lines make the hooks sink faster, and setting lines at night keeps them out of reach of birds that feed by day. Used together they are more effective, and several regional fisheries management organisations require a combination. Hook pods, which shield the hook until it has sunk beyond the birds' reach, have also proved highly effective.
Onboard observers and electronic monitoring supply the data on how vessels and seabirds interact. With BirdLife International, the Common Oceans Tuna Project set up a port-based outreach programme in Fiji that works directly with fishers on these measures, and is now helping expand it to Indonesia. The project works with 25 organisations, including fisheries bodies, industry and NGOs.
Stephanie Borelle of BirdLife International, who took part in the assessment, said science-based measures must be strengthened and members must enforce the rules already on the books in their fleets. For tuna fleets, the hotspot maps show where mitigation and monitoring will save the most birds.
Source: FAO Newsroom
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