Establishing Minimum Data Standards And Reporting Requirements For Longline Observer Programs Under Resolution C-11-08

The adoption of Resolution C-11-08 on scientific observers for longline vessels was based on the Commission’s recognition of the “need to collect scientific information on target species as well as comprehensive data on interactions with non-target species, inter alia, sea turtles, sharks and seabirds.” The large-scale tuna longline fishery—herein referred to as the “longline fishery”—is one of the most important fisheries in the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO), especially for bigeye and albacore tunas and swordfish. Additionally, many other species are also caught incidentally in longline fisheries. The scientific need for high-resolution operational, effort, and species-specific catch data for the longline fishery is well understood, and has been discussed extensively at meetings of the Commission and its scientific bodies; for details, see Document SAC-08-07b. As an example, an Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA), using Productivity-Susceptibility Analysis (PSA), was successfully conducted for species caught in the purse-seine fishery, whereas the lack of fundamental operational information and species-specific catch data stymied efforts to extend the ERA to include the longline fishery.
Document SAC-08-07b notes the paucity of data pertaining to interactions with sea turtles, marine mammals, and seabirds in the IATTC longline database. Furthermore, catches of several other taxa, when reported, were reported within highly-aggregated taxonomic groups, which thwarts attempts to conduct ERAs and single-species population assessments. Also noted was the near-complete absence in the IATTC longline database (only 84 of 82,053 records) of basic operational-level data that are crucial for the standardization of effort and computation of relative abundance indices (e.g. set-by-set data describing set date, time, duration, hooks per basket, and length of floatlines, branchlines, and mainlines).
Due to this paucity of important data for longline fisheries, in Resolution C-11-08 (paragraph 7) the Commission agreed that “every year, CPCs shall submit to the Scientific Advisory Committee … the scientific observers’ information on the previous year's fishery in a format established by the Scientific Advisory Committee.” However, the SAC has not yet established such a format for operational-level data1, and CPCs continue to submit highly-summarized data from their respective national scientific observer programs, which limits their usefulness for conducting stock assessments, ERAs, and other research. These reports, usually less than ten pages long, typically summarize the characteristics of the program, provide total observed catch data for some species, and indicate whether the goal of 5% coverage of relevant longline effort was met. Unfortunately, the formats used by CPCs to report the summarized data are often inadequate to determine by what criterion the minimum 5% observer coverage was met; i.e., insufficient data are provided on the number of effective fishing days, vessels, sets, and hooks.
At its meeting in 2016, the SAC attempted to reach a decision that would fully implement paragraph 7 of C-11-08 and require CPCs to submit observer data for all the fields included in the IATTC longline observer forms. It was clarified that the use of those specific forms was not required—since they are only in English and Spanish—and that individual CPCs could develop forms they considered appropriate for their own program, including incorporating additional data fields, as long as, at a minimum, all the observer data specified in the IATTC forms would be submitted to the Commission. However, due to the reservations expressed by one CPC, no consensus was reached, and there is therefore currently no mandate that detailed observer data collected by these programs be shared with the Commission.