International Seafood Sustainability Foundation’s Third Bycatch Mitigation Research Cruise in the WCPO

The scientific cruise took place during May 2014 in the central Pacific Ocean onboard the purse seiner ALBATUN TRES, a Spanish-flagged vessel. The ALBATUN TRES is a 115m purse seiner built in 2004 with 4,406 GT. The cruise started in Christmas (Kiribati Is.) on May 3rd and ended in Tarawa (Kiribati Is.) on May 31st. During a 4-week period a group of four scientists joined fishers headed out into the Pacific in search of better fishing practices that would avoid or mitigate the capture of non-target species or undesirable sized tunas. Specific objectives included: (1) Attaching echosounder buoys from four different brands to the FADs to compare signals; (2) Use of a scientific acoustic echo--‐ sounder with frequencies of 38, 120 and 200 kHz onboard the work boat, followed by intensive spill sampling to compare acoustic data and species composition; (3) Study of fish behavior inside the net; (4) Use of an escape panel to release sharks; (5) Making other observations that could lead to further tests of mitigation techniques. Preliminary results of these studies are presented.