Archived News

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The Ninth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), meeting in Rome, Italy over 1-5 December 2008 has adopted Resolution 9.18 on By-catch.  Submitted by Australia, the resolution was adopted on the last day of CoP9.

The resolution takes note that despite considerable progress on implementing bycatch mitigation measures to reduce the adverse impacts of fishing, bycatch remains one of the major causes of mortality of CMS-listed migratory species in the marine environment.  The resolution is of direct relevance to ACAP, since all the ACAP-listed species of albatrosses and petrel are also listed on one or other of the CMS’ appendices.

A request is made in the resolution for the CMS Secretariat to investigate the feasibility of both producing an assessment of the impact of fisheries bycatch on migratory species covered by the Bonn Convention and a review to identify priority fisheries, regions and species that would benefit from cooperative action though the CMS.

The resolution also calls on the CMS Scientific Council to continue to identify emerging and best-practice mitigation techniques, and strongly encourages States to work through RFMOs (Regional Fisheries Management Organizations) to address the problem.  A call is also made for Parties that have not all already done so to produce their National Plans of Action- Seabirds.

ACAP was represented at CoP9 by Barry Baker, Convenor, ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group, who presented a report on behalf of ACAP to the 34th Meeting of the CMS Standing Committee, which met immediately before CoP9.  The report covered the activities and progress made by ACAP since the previous meeting of the CMS Conference of Parties held in 2005 (CoP8).  Mr Baker is also the appointed Councillor for By-catch of the CMS Scientific Council.

Click here for a summary of what CoP9 achieved.  See also page eight (on the bycatch resolution) of an independent report of the Meeting at http://www.iisd.ca/download/pdf/enb1838e.pdf in the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.

News from John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, with input from Barry Baker.  Posted 7 December 2008, updated 8 December 2008.