3.3 Types of Good and Unsuitable handling practices
From 2016 to 2020, when released with Good practices, whale sharks were most often rolled over the floats (92.6% of correctly released whale sharks) while other species were most often handled manually(figure 5). The use of specific equipment was less frequent except for mobulid rays for which pieces of netting were used in 20.3% of the cases of correctly released mobulids and plastic tarps were used in 9.3% of the cases.
No notable change in the types of Best Practices used by purse seiners over time and no notable differences were observed among types of observers. These results suggest that the recommended Best Practices have been well understood by fishing crews, even with the high turnover in fishing crew members. Small differences in the techniques used for sea turtles and mobulid rays were reported among oceans and types of observations. However, these differences may be an artefact of the smaller numbers of individuals reported in Best Practices data in the Indian Ocean
Good handling practices by species/ type of observer program/ ocean