EU request on monitoring of bycatch of seabirds

ICES advises on a series of fisheries where bycatch is likely to pose a risk to seabird populations. Fisheries within each of the four European DCF regions as well as some parts of the larger DCF areas were reviewed for level IV métiers. Information on bycatch remains relatively sparse and is becoming increasingly dated. Priority should be given to monitoring in trammelnets and set gillnets in the Baltic, North Sea, and North Atlantic, and in set long-line fisheries in the Atlantic and Mediterranean/Black Sea.

A framework, including metrics and criteria, to define a seabird bycatch problem is described and explored. Further work would be needed to assess the risk of bycatch adversely affecting seabird populations if this framework was adopted.

A standard data format is under development and the database developed by ICES for marine mammal bycatch is designed also to store seabird bycatch data.