ACAP Guidelines on hook removal from seabirds

At the ninth meeting of CCSBT’s Ecologically Related Species Working Group (ERSWG9) in 2012, the CCSBT Secretariat presented an updated "Guide to Reducing the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries". However, some meeting attendees expressed concern that the advice presented was not best practice. Although a number of existing publications aim to provide advice on handling hooked birds and hook removal, the level of detail and the techniques recommended vary between publications.

The ACAP draft guidelines (Annex 1) aim to collate and update existing information to provide standard best-practice advice that can be readily used on its own by a wide audience or adapted for more targeted projects.