Albatross and petrel distribution in the Atlantic Ocean and overlap with ICCAT longline effort

This paper presents an analysis of tracking data for 9 species (10 populations) of albatross and petrel species and calculates the degree of overlap with pelagic longline fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean. The analysis confirms the importance of the ICCAT area for a suite of globally significant albatross species. The Critically Endangered Tristan albatross and Endangered Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross have the highest degree of overlap with longline fishing and, along with the Vulnerable white-chinned petrel, have the highest exposure to longline hooks of the species analysed. Adjacent to the southern African coast the same two albatross species plus black-browed albatross migrating from South Georgia – range as far north as 10°S where the ICCAT Recommendation 11-09 to reduce incidental seabird bycatch does not currently apply. Estimates of the number of pelagic longline hooks set south of 25°S suggest that pelagic longline effort in areas of high seabird abundance has decreased since 2000-2005.