About References

Types of references in the BMIS

References (scientific & technical literature) in the BMIS encompass seabird, sea turtle, shark & ray, & marine mammal bycatch mitigation & management in oceanic tuna & billfish fisheries (longline, purse seine & gillnet). Various formats, e.g., journal articles, meeting papers, infographics, illustrated handling & identification guides, factsheets, videos, books, brochures, etc are included.

Read our SEARCH TIPS to help you find what you want.

References are categorised and searchable according to the Mitigation Techniques (a list of 25+) or management issues that they focus on. Management Categories include:

  • At-vessel & post-release mortality
  • Bycatch threats & interaction rates
  • Compliance
  • Data availability & collection
  • Data harmonisation
  • E-monitoring
  • Economic & social analysis
  • Fisheries management performance
  • Implementation & evaluation of mitigation techniques
  • International & national management schemes
  • Policy development & knowledge exchange
  • Review & planning
  • Shark finning restrictions
  • Species identification
  • Tagging studies

Population-level assessments (PLA) inform bycatch management but are considered separately from the categories above for the purposes of the BMIS. PLA includes studies which describe the status of bycatch populations, as distinguished from those that look at interaction rates. PLA sub-categories are discussed in more detail elsewhere but include: abundance indices; biological parameters; productivity susceptibility analyses; demographic methods; stock assessments; and an open category.

Search Filters

At the references search interface, the user has many options to filter a search. These include: mitigation technique; management category; bycatch species group; fishing gear; year; keyword (such as author, or terms like biodegradable, non-entangling, 'cryptic mortality', GLM, GAMM, or indicators ); and collection. Collections are a quick way to browse RFMO scientific meeting papers, e.g., IOTC 2021,  as well as safe handling and release and Species ID Guides.For Population Level Assessments (PLA), users can filter by type of PLA, model, stock, or population status. Results can be sorted by year or first author by clicking on the column header.

Copyright and Google Scholar

Where possible, the BMIS provides both an option to download the PDF corresponding to a reference and the url of the website where the PDF can be accessed. In the case of ‘pay-to-view’ journal articles, due to copyright restrictions, only a link to the journal page is provided. However, a Google Scholar link is also provided in such cases. Using this search engine can sometimes turn up free access to PDFs because, for example, authors often publish PDFs of journal articles on personal, academic (e.g. academia.edu or ResearchGate**), or institutional websites. Alternatively, authors may provide PDFs on request.

You many be eligible for free or low cost access to pay-to-view publications via Research4Life  if your institution is an academic, government, NGO or research institution in a low- and middle-income country.

**sometimes pdfs available via ResearchGate do not show up in a GoogleScholar search