Technical Advice and Assistance for Peruvian Fishermen on Avoiding Seabird Bycatch: Report of a Trip to Peru to Assess Opportunities for Collaboration Between IMARPE and Southern Seabird Solutions (Peru and New Zealand)

Peru’s fishing fleet is made up of both small artisanal and large industrial vessels. The small vessel fleet is made up of around 9,667 vessels of which 1,601 are longliners. The remainder are a mix of gill netters, trawlers and shellfish dive vessels. The industrial fleet (storage capacity from 30 to around 900 cubic meters) comprises 1,353 vessels of which 1,258 (93%) are purse seiners, 75 are trawlers and 26 are toothfish vessels. Results of a portside questionnaire conducted by Pro Delphinus (Joanna Alfaro and Jeff Mangel) in 2003 and 2004 found that at least 10 albatross and petrel species are caught (including the rare Chatham albatross from New Zealand, and the waved albatross from the Galapagos). Fishermen were asked how many seabirds they caught in a year, and from this it was estimated that between 1533 and 4292 seabirds are caught annually. A separate survey conducted by IMARPE (Instituto del Mar del Peru) suggests that fishermen in the north catch between 0.74 – 1.75 seabirds per 1000 hooks (Jancke et al. 2001). These are some of the highest catch rates recorded in any fishery and are of real concern.