The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission's Scientific Committee is meeting this week in Victoria, Seychelles when seabird-fishery interactions are expected to be discussed (click here for a previous ACAP story on the IOTC's efforts to reduce seabird mortality by pelagic longliners).

A draft document (IOTC-2010-SC-08) to be tabled at the meeting, entitled "Executive Summary of the Status of Seabirds", may be found at http://www.iotc.org/files/proceedings/2010/sc/IOTC-2010-SC-08%20[E+F].pdf.

Click here for the meeting's agenda.

The Australian National Report to the IOTC Scientific Committee details Australian efforts to reduce seabird mortality and reports only two birds (a yellow-nosed albatross Thalassarche sp. and a Flesh-footed Shearwater Puffinus carneipes) hooked in its Western Tuna and Billfish Fishery in 2009.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 6 December 2010