Revised Spatial Risk Indicators for Seabird Interactions with Longline Fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific

Citation
Filippi D, Waugh S, Nicol S (2010) Revised Spatial Risk Indicators for Seabird Interactions with Longline Fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific. WCPFC, Nuku’alofa, Tonga
Abstract

In this paper we assess the risk of interactions between longline fisheries and seabirds in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) Convention Area. Efforts to reduce fishing-induced mortality are especially important for Procellariiform seabirds, particularly albatrosses and gadfly petrels, which are at particularly high risk of species extinction. We use a spatially explicit Productivity-Susceptibility Analysis (PSA) to determine (a) the probability of seabird-fisheries interactions occurring, by comparison of fishing effort and species range distributions, and (b) the risk of adverse effects of fishing-induced mortality on populations of seabirds. Compared to our previous analysis, this new analysis has been computed seasonally and takes into account more population data including spatially explicit data on seabird breeding colonies. In effort to have a better estimation of the species at risk, the susceptibility of the PSA is weighted by the vulnerability of a species caught per hook. We also identified areas of high seabird diversity as well as areas with the potential for fisheries interactions if fishing effort were to increase in those areas.