Great news for albatross conservation - IOTC reaches landmark agreement

[Ross Wanless]

Hi all
I've just returned from a meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission.
BirdLife International has been working towards strengthening the
conservation measures relating to seabird bycatch in the IOTC's
longline fleets for several years. Last week, after plenty of dramas
and hitches, the commissioners agreed to a new, dramatically
strengthened measure. If properly implemented, this measure will
result in significant reductions in seabird bycatch in the Indian
Ocean. This would be particularly good news for the Amsterdam
Albatross.

The IOTC measure is in most respects a carbon-copy of the Atlantic
tuna commission (ICCAT) measure that was passed in November last year.
With these two major tuna commissions now in harmony, it's highly
likely that the two Pacific commissions will follow suite later this
year.

It's worth noting that the EU and France were particularly strong in
their desire to see a good measure agreed-upon last week. Japan has
also taken very positive steps towards addressing the seabird bycatch
issues, including offering financial support for skipper training work
to ensure an orderly and safe implementation of the new measures.
Cheers

--
Ross Wanless
+27 73 675 3267

[Angus Wilson]

Ross,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention and for your efforts to improve the practices of the tuna fishing industry. This is good news indeed, especially if this helps bring the Pacific commissions into lock step. I'm curious, is there documented evidence of Amsterdam Albatross mortality as bycatch? This would certainly drive home the significance of the avoidable death of even a single bird.

Angus Wilson
New York, USA

[Ross Wanless]

Hi Angus
No Amsterdam albie has ever been reported as killed in longline
fishing. Hardly surprising, given that there's only 30 pairs (which is
also the biggest population since it was describe in 1982). So the
chance of there being an observer on a boat when one is captured is
exceptionally small. Also, most observers would simply record it as a
Wandering Albatross, if anything. Some nice modeling work by gurus
Henri Weimerskirch and Geoff Tuck has shown that a recent surge in
Taiwanese longline effort for albacore overlaps very strongly with the
distribution (from satellite tracks) of the albies, and in fact the
models suggest that the increased effort can explain the recent
leveling-off of the population growth. Given the lag effects and
susceptibility of juveniles, we may be witnessing another decrease as
older birds are also occasionally caught or they senesce, and younger
and more vulnerable birds fail to recruit. Their model shows that just
6 accidental mortalities a year would be sufficient to drive a
decrease.
Cheers
Ross

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