Advances on the Collaborative Work to Assess Sea Turtle Bycatch in Pelagic Longline and Purse Seine Fleets (Atlantic and Indian Oceans and Mediterranean Sea)

A collaborative work to assess the impact of pelagic longline fleets on sea turtles in the Atlantic Ocean from an entirely scientific perspective was initiated in 2018. This report updates the advances achieved after the Workshop II held in Malaga (Spain) between 27 and 31 January 2020. The objectives of this process include determining the spatio-temporal trends of the incidental catch of sea turtles in pelagic longline and purse seine fisheries in the Atlantic and southwestern Indian Ocean, as well as, from the Mediterranean Sea, aiming a wider geographical perspective of this issue. For this purpose, fine scale bycatch data from several longline and purse-seine fleets, covering a period of circa 20 years, includes available information gathered through national observer programmes on incidental capture of sea turtles in the Atlantic and southwest Indian Oceans from longline fleets of Brazil, Canada, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, and Uruguay, including the effort of foreign fleets that have operated in the EEZs of some of these countries. In addition, there is also data available from the Spanish pelagic longline fleet operating in the Mediterranean.