MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1998 



from being lost and discarded at sea. To prevent 

 seabirds from being attracted to and caught on baited 

 hooks, the Commission, acting on the advice of its 

 Scientific Committee, has adopted measures requiring 

 that longlines be set only at night, that the use of 

 lights be kept to a minimum when setting and retriev- 

 ing longlines, that streamers be towed above longlines 

 as they are set to discourage birds from attempting to 

 take bait, and that the offal from fish processing be 

 discarded firom the opposite side of vessels from 

 which longlines are being set or retrieved. In 1997 

 the Scientific Committee recommended that the start 

 of the 1998 longline fishing season be delayed until 1 

 May to minimize longline fishing during the seabird 

 breeding season in the Convention Area. Some 

 members of the Commission believed that such a 

 delay would adversely affect the fisheries. As a 

 compromise, it was agreed to delay the start of the 

 longline fisheries only to 1 April and to consider the 

 matter further in 1998. 



Data provided to and analyzed by the Scientific 

 Committee in 1998 indicated a substantial reduction in 

 the bycatch of seabirds, mostly white-chinned petrels 

 and black-browed albatrosses, in longline fisheries 

 around the Antarctic Peninsula (640 birds observed 

 killed during the 1997-1998 fishing season, compared 

 with 5,755 birds in the 1996-1997 season). There 

 also was a reduction in the observed seabird bycatch 

 in the western Indian Ocean (498 seabirds killed in 

 1997-1998 compared with 834 in 1996-1997). 



Overall, there was a reduction in the observed 

 seabird mortality in the regulated fisheries in the 

 Convention Area in 1997-1998. This was due in part 

 to the delay of the begiiming of the longline fishing 

 season until 1 April. The Scientific Committee again 

 advised that the level of bycatch of some seabird 

 species is not sustainable and could be reduced by 

 delaying the start of the longline fishing season to 1 

 May as recommended in 1997. The European Union 

 and several other contracting parties noted that delay- 

 ing the start of the fishing season until 1 May would 

 limit the legal fishing season to four winter months 

 and require that vessels fishing legally take the catch 

 quotas in 20 percent less time and fish in poor weath- 

 er conditions. They also noted that the presence of 

 vessels fishing legally provided the only means for 

 sighting and estimating catches of vessels fishing 



illegally. After reviewing the relative costs and 

 benefits, the Commission agreed to delay until 15 

 April the start of the 1999 longline fishing season in 

 areas where seabirds are most likely to be present. 



Between 50,000 to 89,000 seabirds were estimated 

 to have been killed incidental to unregulated fishing in 

 the Convention Area in 1998. Similar numbers were 

 estimated to have been killed in the unregulated 

 fisheries in 1997. These levels are more than an 

 order of magnitude greater than those in the regulated 

 fisheries and are due to lack of compliance with the 

 mitigation measures adopted by the Living Resources 

 Commission. In this regard, the Commission noted, 

 and called on members to support, the efforts of the 

 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United 

 Nations to develop an international plan of action on 

 the reduction of incidental catch of seabirds in long- 

 line fisheries. This plan reflects the types of measures 

 that have been instituted in the Southern Ocean and 

 would lead to the reduction of Antarctic seabird 

 bycatch in adjacent areas. 



The U.S. Antarctic Marine Living Resources 

 Research Program 



The Antarctic Marine Living Resources Convention 

 Act of 1984 provides the domestic legislative authority 

 necessary for the United States to implement the 

 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine 

 Living Resources. Among other things, the Act 

 directs the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation 

 with the Secretary of State, the Director of the 

 National Science Foundation, and appropriate officials 

 of other federal agencies, such as the Marine Mammal 

 Commission, to prepare, implement, and annually 

 update a plan for directed research necessary to 

 effectively implement the Convention. The Secretary 

 of Commerce has delegated responsibility for this 

 program to the National Marine Fisheries Service. 

 The Service in turn has assigned program responsibili- 

 ty to the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La 

 Jolla, California. 



[Information concerning this program and related 

 matters can be obtained from the Chief, Antarctic 

 Ecosystem Research Group, Southwest Fisheries 

 Science Center. P.O. Box 271, La Jolla. CaUfomia 92038.] 



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