A collection of tweets from #SMM2013 about fisheries bycatch of marine mammals
The 20th Biennial Conference on Marine Mammals was held at Otago University in Dunedin, New Zealand from December 9 to 13, 2013. Over 1000 scientists came together from around the world for 357 talks and about 400 posters about marine mammals.
Cory's shearwater, Calonectris diomedea, is the main seabird species incidentally caught by the Spanish longline fleet in the western Mediterranean Sea. The authors used onboard observer data to model the longline bycatch of Cory's shearwaters as a function of time of the year, technical characteristics of the fishing operation, and geographical location. The most explanatory factor for bycatch was the geographical location and then the technical characteristics (number of hooks and fishing during non-working days).
This study examined the spatial and temporal variations in bycatch rates of four species of great albatrosses. Observer data was obtained from the Uruguayan pelagic longline fleet and Japanese vessles operating in Uruguay. Vessel operational practices and habitat variables affected bycatch rates, including: setting time, moon phase, and area and season.
Potential risk of fisheries to cetaceans was assessed using a screening procedure based on a Productivity Susceptibility Analysis (PSA) using gears found in Ireland. Gillnets targeting demersal species was assessed as the fishery posing the greatest risk to cetaceans. Pelagic trawls targeting small pelagic species was found to pose a moderate risk to cetaceans. Specific gear-species interactions were also identified, such as humpback whales and pots/traps.
The Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction has won the 2013 Katerva Ecosystem Conservation Award!
The Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction has won the 2013 Katerva Ecosystem Conservation Award!
The Katerva award is hailed as “the Nobel Prize of Sustainability.” The Katerva Award, now in its third year, draws upon a network of experts from science, business, academia, finance, and government to
identify innovative projects in ten different categories that have the “greatest potential for both impact and scale” and have the potential to be applied in other locations and situations.
The long-term effectiveness of acoustic pingers in reducing marine mammal bycatch was assessed in the California swordfish and thresher shark drift gillnet fishery. Bycatch was observed at sea between 1990 and 2009, with acoustic pingers being present from 1996 to 2009. Bycatch rates of cetaceans decreased by around 50% when pingers were present; the decrease was mostly driven by common dolphins. Beaked whales have not been incidentally caught since 1995. Pinger failure occurred in less than 4% of observed sets.