An update on best practices onboard French and Italian tropical tuna purse seiners of the Atlantic and Indian oceans: outcomes and ongoing projects

The issue of mortality of sensitive species incidentally caught by fishing vessels has become a major concern for the sustainability of fisheries, in the last decades. In 2012, the collaboration with French scientists of the French Institute for Research and Development (IRD) and Ifremer resulted in the first manual of safe handling and releasing techniques for sharks, whale sharks, rays and sea turtles (Poisson et al. 2012, 2014b). Eight years after the publication of the manual on Best Practices, a comprehensive assessment of the application of best practices on board French and associated flag purse seiners has been carried out (Maufroy et al. 2020). This study highlighted several issues. Following this, changes were made to the observation programs and new projects were set up. This paper presents the various modifications made as well as the new programs launched by ORTHONGEL and its member shipowners.