Archived News

The Scientific Committee of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) is holding its 14th Session this week in Victoria, Seychelles (click here for the meeting's agenda).

The meeting will consider the Report of the Seventh Session of the Working Party on Ecosystems and Bycatch (WPEB) held in the Maldives in October this year which agreed that a combination of weighted branch lines, bird-scaring lines and night setting represents best-practice mitigation in reducing bycatch of seabirds to the lowest possible level in pelagic longline fisheries. The WPEB then recommended that Resolution 10/06 On Reducing the Incidental Bycatch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries be amended to reflect this advice.

The Scientific Committee will also discuss the status of seabirds and National Plans of Action for Seabirds by countries that fish within the Indian Ocean.  Only Australia, Japan, South Africa and Taiwan have produced NPOA-Seabirds so far, although the European Union is close to adopting its plan, and the Republic of Korea is stated to be in the early stages of development of a plan.

The Amsterdam Albatross: endemic to the IOTC region in the southern Indian Ocean

Click here for an earlier news item on developments within the IOTC of relevance to the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.

References:

IOTC Secretariat 2011.   Status of Seabirds in the Indian Ocean.  IOTC-2011-SC14-25.  8 pp.

IOTC Secretariat 2011.  Status of Development and Implementation of National Plans of Action for Seabirds and Sharks.  IOTC-2011-SC14-33 [E].  5 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 December 2011