ACAP's Seabird Bycatch Working Group is meeting in Brazil this week

This and next week ACAP is holding its suite of annual meetings in Floreanópolis, Brazil.  Proceedings commenced with a Strategy Workshop to identify the most effective and efficient ways to engage with tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (tRFMOs) to deliver on ACAP conservation objectives on Sunday 5th (click here).

The workshop is being followed by a three-day meeting (the Ninth in the series) of ACAP's Seabird Bycatch Working Group (SBWG9).  Members and observers from 10 of ACAP's 13 Parties are in attendance, along with participants from range states Canada, Japan, Namibia and the USA, and from The Bahamas.  In addition, attendees have come from several NGOs: notably BirdLife International, Humane Society International and Brazil's Projeto Albatroz.  SBWG's four convenors will report on deliberations and findings of its Ninth Meeting to its parent body, the Advisory Committee, at its 11th Meeting from Monday next week.  Click here to access  the meeting's agenda and for the many documents (some password protected) being considered.

Here are some scenes from the first two days of SBWG9 in Floreanópolis:

Convenors and Vice Convenors Juan Pablo Seco Pon (Argentina), Igor Debski (New Zealand), Anton Wolfaardt (UK) and Sebastián Jiménez (Uruguay) get SBWG9 started

The southern African contingent at SBWG9: John Cooper (ACAP Information Officer), Johan de Goede (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, South Africa) and Desmond Bosco Tom (Seabirds & Offshore Islands, Namibia)

Daisuke Ochi, Sachiko Tsuji and Nobuhiro Katsumata, delegates from Japan, at lunch

Brazilian delegates from Projeto Albatroz in discussion

Some of us go running: Johan de Goede from South Africa photographs the dawn from the beach, Praia de Jurerê, Florianópolis

More sights and scenes from SBWG9 can be found on ACAP's Facebook page.  Photographs by John Cooper.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 May 2019