Reasonably encouraging news for Southern Ocean seabirds

The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) adopted new regulations to reduce seabird bycatch in its fishery. The IOTC is an intergovernmental organization that oversees the tuna and tuna-like fishery in the Indian Ocean and adjacent seas north of the Antarctic Convergence (see map). The seabird proposal was led by Australia and the European Community with support from Japan and Korea. Much of the scientific data used to justify the proposal was provided by BirdLife International and ACAP, the 'Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels' based in Hobart, Australia.

Under the new regulations, all longline vessels fishing for tuna and swordfish in the southern Indian Ocean, south of 30°S, will be required to use a combination of at least two measures to reduce seabird bycatch. Operators can choose to set their hooks at night with minimum deck lighting when birds are less active and use a bird streamer, or tori, line to keep birds away from the hooks, or add weight to lines to make them sink more quickly out of reach of the albatrosses, or lastly, dye the bait blue to make it less visible. Currently, four out of the five tuna commissions have regulations of this type in place and at the end of June, the fifth, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission will consider adopting similar policy at its meeting in Panama.

This is a good first step but it is still a baby step towards abolishing seabird mortality from commercial long-line fishing. As the IOTC recognizes, systems to monitor and enforce compliance still need to be established - no easy matter on the high seas. Under the new regulations, longlining vessels from organizations that belong to the IOTC will need to report seabird interactions on an annual basis and a scientific committee will report on the impact of the new requirements no later than 2011. For the Critically Endangered Amsterdam Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis and the Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche carteri, both of which are essentially endemic to the IOTC region, time is of the essence. Hopefully the new measures will be effective and not have to be revised significantly once the data is gathered.