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title: "ICCAT’s Sub-Committee on Ecosystems Intersessional Meeting is reviewing seabird bycatch measures this week in Madrid"
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# ICCAT’s Sub-Committee on Ecosystems Intersessional Meeting is reviewing seabird bycatch measures this week in Madrid

The Sub-Committee on Ecosystems of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas ([ICCAT](https://www.iccat.int/)) is meeting intersessionally this week at the commission’s headquarters in Madrid, Spain ([click here](https://www.iccat.int/Documents/Meetings/Announce/00532-15_ENG.PDF)).

 Among other matters up for discussion at the meeting is the initiation of a review of the efficiency of seabird by-catch methods as set out in ICCAT [Recommendation 11.09](https://www.iccat.int/Documents/Recs/compendiopdf-e/2011-09-e.pdf) “Supplemental Recommendation by ICCAT on Reducing Incidental Bycatch of Seabirds in ICCAT Longline Fisheries”. This recommendation lists line-weighting, use of bird-scaring lines and night setting with minimum deck lighting as mitigation measures.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Mitigation/Bird_scaring_lines_Vero_Cortes.jpg)

 A deployed bird-scaring line, photograph by Vero Cortes

 ACAP is being represented at the meeting by Anton Wolfaardt, Convenor, of its Seabird Bycatch Working Group.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 June 2015*