Interactions between sea turtles and pelagic longline fisheries

Longlines are a specific type of fishing gear, characterised by having multiple baited hooks attached individually to a mainline. Longlining is the term used to describe the use of longline gear. Generally, there are two longline fishing methods: demersal, and pelagic. Good descriptions of longline fishing and fishing gear can be found in (Bjorndal and Lokkeborg 1996, and Brothers et al. 1999). This report will deal only with pelagic longlining, as it is the longline fishing method most often implicated in the incidental take or interacting with sea turtles. However, there are some recent reports of sea turtle interactions with demersal longline gear, and these are included in this section just for completeness, but will not be discussed further in this report.