2 September 2011: The Seabirds Bycatch Working Group of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), an agreement developed under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), has convened to discuss seabird bycatch, breeding sites and status and trends. The meeting was followed by a meeting of the joint Working Groups on Breeding Sites and Status and Trends, to review the most recent information on population status and trends.

The Seabirds Bycatch Working Group meeting, held from 22-24 August 2011, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, looked at the global impact of bycatch of seabirds in longline fisheries and reviewed research papers on mitigation measures. According to the data available, between 160,000 and 320,000 seabirds are killed every year, of which most are albatross and petrel species listed on Annex 1 of the Agreement. However, the same data show evidence of reduced bycatch in some key fisheries, as a result of decreased fishing efforts and greater use of mitigation measures.

The Working Group concluded that the three best practice mitigation methods are: night setting; branch line weighting; and bird scaring lines, and that their combined use could reduce bycatch more effectively.

The CMS representative chairing the meeting highlighted the Secretariat’s review of the impact of gillnets on marine mammals, sea turtles, sharks and seabirds, which will be presented at the 10th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 10) to the CMS, convening in November 2011 in Norway.

The Working Groups on Breeding Sites and Status and Trends met from 25-26 August 2011. They lamented the decline in global populations, especially the Tristan and Antipodean Albatrosses, as well as populations of Wandering Albatross and Black-browed Albatrosses. At the same time, seven ACAP species are increasing in numbers, including the three North Pacific albatrosses. [CMS News] [ACAP Website]