Report of the workshop: Collaborative work to assess seabird bycatch in pelagic longline fleets (South Atlantic and Indian Oceans). 20 to 23 of June 2017, Montevideo, Uruguay

A collaborative work to assess seabird bycatch in the pelagic longline fleets operating in the South Atlantic (SAO) and Indian (IO) Oceans from an entirely scientific perspective, was conceived by researchers from several national fleets during the Inter-sessional Meeting of the Sub-committee on Ecosystems of ICCAT, in September 2016. The objectives of this process are 1) to determine the spatio-temporal patterns of seabird bycatch, 2) to estimate the seabird bycatch (at the lowest possible taxonomic level) and data permitting, 3) to gain knowledge on the performance of mitigation measures. A first workshop was celebrated during 20-23 June of 2017 in Montevideo, Uruguay. During this meeting raw observer data from the fleets of Brazil, Japan, Portugal and Uruguay were presented/submitted by scientists of the respective countries. The main objectives of this workshop were to understand the data of each country, to define the levels (i.e. seabirds, groups, species) and scales (spatial and temporal) at which the analyses will be conducted and to discuss alternatives of data analyses. This report summarises the results of the workshop.