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title: "Identifying bycatch hotspots: North Pacific albatrosses overlap with Canadian longline fisheries"
---

# Identifying bycatch hotspots: North Pacific albatrosses overlap with Canadian longline fisheries

![Black footed Albatross Colleen Laird](https://www.acap.aq/images/WAD/Black-footed_Albatross_Colleen_Laird.jpg)

 *Black-footed Albatross, artwork by Colleen Laird‎ for ACAP*

 Caroline Fox ([Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada](https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change.html), Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada) and colleagues have published open access in the journal [*Marine Ecology Progress Series*](https://www.int-res.com/journals/meps/meps-home/) on spatial overlaps of Black-footed *Phoebastria nigripes*, Laysan *P. immutabilis* and Short-tailed *P. albatrus* Albatrosses with Canadian longline fisheries.

 The paper’s abstract follows:

 “Fisheries bycatch mortality poses a primary threat to the majority of the world’s 22 albatross species, 15 of which are at risk of extinction. Although quantitative estimates of albatross bycatch are often unavailable due to a relative or total absence of monitoring, spatial overlap between fisheries and albatrosses is often used to estimate the extent of interaction, a proxy for exposure to bycatch, and to inform avoidance and mitigation actions. Using comprehensive records of commercial demersal longline and trap fishing and survey information for albatrosses (black-footed albatross *Phoebastria nigripes*, Laysan albatross *P. immutabilis*, short-tailed albatross *P. albatrus*), the extent of spatial potential interaction was estimated in Canada’s Pacific coast waters and examined across breeding and non-breeding seasons. The distributions of albatrosses and longline and trap fisheries were found to substantially overlap, with potential interaction hotspots concentrated along the continental shelf break. Trap fisheries reported 1 albatross bycatch incident, suggesting that these fisheries are responsible for negligible albatross mortalities. In contrast, >80% of recorded albatross bycatch incidents occurred within 10 km of albatross-longline fisheries hotspot locations, providing evidence that longline-albatross potential interaction hotspots represent actual areas of elevated bycatch mortality risk. Indicative of potential conservation concern, 60% of short-tailed albatross sightings occurred within 10 km, and 93% within 30 km, of longline-albatross potential interaction hotspots. By contributing knowledge regarding albatross-fisheries interactions, in addition to undertaking the first evaluation of albatross-fisheries hotspots with recorded bycatch incidents on Canada’s Pacific coast, this study represents a step towards enhancing albatross conservation through bycatch avoidance and mitigation.”

 With thanks to Ken Morgan.

 **Reference:**

 Fox, C.H., Robertson, C., O'Hara, P.D., Tadey, R. & Morgan, K.H. 2021.  Spatial assessment of albatrosses, commercial fisheries, and bycatch incidents on Canada's Pacific coast.  [*Marine Ecology Progress Series*672: 205-222](https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v672/p205-222/).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 August 2021*