Archived News

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) held a one-day Technical Meeting on Seabirds at Del Mar, California, USA on 11 May 2009.  The aim of the meeting was to review the distribution of seabirds within the region covered by the Commission (the Eastern Pacific Ocean), consider information on seabird-fisheries interactions (purse-seine, longline and artisanal), look at seabird population trends, and list data requirements for assessing the level of incidental mortality (click here for the meeting agenda).

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ACAP was represented at the meeting by the Chair of its Advisory Committee, Dr Marco Favero from Argentina, who presented three papers:

Albatross and petrel distribution within the IATTC area (click here for PDF).

Conservation status and at-sea threats for the Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata (click here for PDF).

Mitigation measures for pelagic longline gear: a report on the work of the Seabird Bycatch Working Group, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (click here for PDF).

Other papers presented at the meeting were produced by BirdLife International, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Washington Sea Grant (click here for the full list of tabled papers).

The history of the IATTC’s progress towards adopting a resolution containing mitigation measures to reduce seabird mortality was set out for the meeting in a paper entitled “Status and distribution of seabirds in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and interactions with fisheries” (click here for PDF).

The report of the technical meting will be considered at the 80th Meeting of the IATTC, to be held in La Jolla, California, USA from 8-12 June 2009 when the adoption of mitigation measures will be discussed (click here for the agenda).