General Mitigation Resources

Moroccan port.  Photo by Mike Markovina/Marine Photobank.

The Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction maintains a database of studies that have investigated mitigation techniques, which can be accessed by fishing technique, species, and mitigation method.

The Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels has summaries of their latest advice for species covered under the agreement. There is a series of 17 factsheets which treat mitigation techniques for longline and trawl fisheries in a variety of configurations, which are now available in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin.

Seabird Bycatch Solutions for Fishery Sustainability is a manual that contains a great deal of information on seabird biology, risks, mitigation methods (including videos of the methods), and regulations and protections for seabirds.

BirdLife International has produced a video Saving Albatrosses - How to Reduce Seabird Bycatch - Tuna Longline Fisheries showing the issues for albatross bycatch and bycatch reduction techniques. The video is also available in Taiwanese. 

O'Keefe et al. evaluate three categories of techniques that are unrelated to gear modifications: time/area closures, bycatch quotas/caps, and fleet communications. They explore the conditions under which each of these techniques is most effective, and conclude that usually it is a combination of measures that are the most effective.  Table 1 provides a list of the studies reviewed and ranks them against performance criteria.

  • O'Keefe, C. E., Cadrin, S. X., & Stokesbury, K. D. 2014. Evaluating effectiveness of time/area closures, quotas/caps, and fleet communications to reduce fisheries bycatch. ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil. 71(5), 1286-1297. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fst063.

The following papers review bycatch reduction techniques, as well as studies investigating their effectiveness. From the abstract of Bull (2007): ''As yet, there is no single magic solution to reduce or eliminate seabird bycatch across all fisheries: a combination of measures is required, and even within a fishery there is likely to be refinement of techniques by individual vessels in order to maximize their effectiveness at reducing seabird bycatch."

General

  • Bull, L. S. 2007. Reducing seabird bycatch in longline, trawl and gillnet fisheries. Fish and Fisheries 8(1): 31–56.
  • Løkkeborg, S. 2011. Best practices to mitigate seabird bycatch in longline, trawl and gillnet fisheries—efficiency and practical applicability. Marine Ecology Progress Series 435: 285–303. doi:10.3354/meps09227

Longlines

  • Jiménez, S., et al. 2020. Towards mitigation of seabird bycatch: Large-scale effectiveness of night setting and Tori lines across multiple pelagic longline fleets. Biological Conservation 247: 108642. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108642
  • Melvin, E. F., et al. 2019. Lessons from seabird conservation in Alaskan longline fisheries. Conservation Biology 33: 842-852. doi:10.1111/cobi.13288
  • Jiménez, S., et al. 2019. Mitigating bycatch of threatened seabirds: the effectiveness of branch line weighting in pelagic longline fisheries. Animal Conservation 22: 376-285. doi:10.1111/acv.12472
  • Sato, N., et al. 2016. Tori-lines with weighted branch lines reduce seabird bycatch in eastern South Pacific longline fishery. Aquatic Conservation, Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 26: 95-107. doi:10.1002/aqc.2492

Trawls

  • Bull, L. S. 2009. New mitigation measures reducing seabird by-catch in trawl fisheries. Fish and Fisheries 10(4): 408–427. doi:10.1111/j.1467-2979.2009.00327.x
  • Koopman, M., et al. 2018. Industry-based development of effective new seabird mitigation devices in the southern Australian trawl fisheries. Endangered Species Research 36: 197-211. doi:10.3354/esr00896

Mitigation methods to reduce seabird bycatch in gillnets are being tested, but consistently effective methods are not yet available.

  • Field, R., et al. 2019. High contrast panels and lights do not reduce bird bycatch in Baltic Sea gillnet fisheries. Global Ecology and Conservation 18: e00602. doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00602
  • Cantlay, J. C., et al. 2020. Ineffectiveness of light emitting diodes as underwater deterrents for Long-tailed Ducks Clangula hyemalis. Global Ecology and Conservation 23: e01102. doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01102
  • Mangel, J. C., et al. 2018. Illuminating gillnets to save seabirds and the potential for multi-taxa bycatch mitigation. Royal Society Open Science doi:10.1098/rsos.180254
  • Rouxel, Y., et al. 2021. Buoys with looming eyes deter seaducks and could potentially reduce seabird bycatch in gillnets. Royal society Open Science doi:10.1098/rsos.210225

The following paper thoroughly reviews bycatch issues associated with traps and nets, including information on bycatch reduction techniques. 

  • Uhlmann, S. S., & Broadhurst, M. K. 2015. Mitigating unaccounted fishing mortality from gillnets and traps. Fish and Fisheries 16(2), 183-229. doi:10.1111/faf.12049

Waugh et al. review how CCAMLR selected its mitigation and safeguard measures and compare CCAMLR with three other RFMOs with respect to their mitigation measures.

  • Waugh, S. M., Baker, G. B., Gales, R., & Croxall, J. P. 2008. CCAMLR process of risk assessment to minimise the effects of longline fishing mortality on seabirds. Marine Policy, 32(3), 442–454. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2007.08.011