Bycatch in the tuna longline fishery

SPC commissioned and contributed to the attached paper on the bycatch issue, to provide background to the topic and draw out the main areas for discussion at this meeting. The paper is not intended to be a scientific review, rather it seeks to outline key political, technical and biological issues and to provide a broad overview of the current status of longline bycatch.

Specifically, the paper outlines key areas of real and perceived concern in relation to major bycatch species, including turtles, seabirds and sharks and notes how catches of these vary with types of fishing gear and operations. It highlights current knowledge about bycatch and how ongoing analysis of logbook and observer data is helping to build a comprehensive view of the current and projected situation. Examples of how the bycatch issue has been raised and dealt with in a number of countries are outlined, providing an opportunity to learn from such experiences.

A number of strategies to reduce bycatch in the WCPO are discussed and it is emphasised that where fisheries managers, researchers and industry cooperate, considerable advances have been achieved. For the WCPO it is suggested that there are a range of proactive actions that can be taken by the region to address bycatch reduction, in conjunction with ensuring that the considerable ongoing and future efforts are communicated effectively in a range of forums.

The paper concludes that it is likely that poorly informed and politically motivated external interventions by lobby groups will continue, and have the potential to impact the emerging fishing industries of the PICTs. By meeting international responsibilities though the development of strategies to manage bycatch issues in the longline fishery, PICTs will be well equipped to deal with such interventions and maintain their credentials as responsible stewards of the world’s largest tuna fishery.

The paper seeks to lay out the key issues relating to pelagic longline bycatch and to promote the considerable current and planned work that the SPC region is devoting to bycatch issues. It will also demonstrate that in promoting longline developments in PICTs, full recognition is being given to ecosystem and other sustainable resource utilisation issues. Specifically the paper will:
provide a simple description of pelagic longline fishing in the western and central Pacific and the techniques employed;
discuss the potential ecological impacts of pelagic longline fishing;
provide historic data on longline catches of both target and bycatch species;
highlight areas of concern in relation to non-target species taken by pelagic longlining, including sharks, seabirds and turtles; and
describe what the region is doing about bycatch, including research efforts and consideration of a range of mitigation strategies that are available where bycatch is an issue.