Electronic Monitoring of Seabird Bycatch

Paragraph 8 of CMM 2012-07 requires the intersessional working group for the regional observer programme (IWG-ROP) to take into account the need to obtain detailed information on seabird interactions to allow analysis of the effects of fisheries on seabirds and evaluation of the effectiveness of bycatch mitigation measures. At WCPFC-SC2, it was noted that to adequately characterize rare events, such as seabird bycatch, up to 100% observer coverage may be required statistically (WCPFC-SC2 Report, para 32). However, at present the WCPFC ROP only requires 5% observer coverage for longline fishing operations, which is unlikely to provide the data required to conduct the analysis that has been tasked to the IWG-ROP by CMM 2012-07.