The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, at its 173rd Meeting, directed Council staff to convene a workshop to review seabird mitigation requirements and the best scientific information available for Hawaii’s pelagic longline fisheries, considering operational aspects of
the fisheries, seasonal and spatial distributions of seabird interactions, alternative bycatch mitigation measures and findings from cost-benefit analyses. To implement the Council’s directions, a Workshop to Review Seabird Bycatch Mitigation Measures for Hawaii’s Pelagic Longline Fisheries was convened at the Council office on September 18-19, 2018.
Workshop participants reviewed and discussed causes of increasing seabird catch rates and levels in the Hawaii pelagic longline fisheries. Catch levels of the black-footed albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) have been steadily increasing in the Hawaii deep-set longline fishery over the past decade, with a large spike in recent years. This significant increase was caused....
