NEAFC request on bycatch risk gears for seabirds in the NEAFC regulatory areas

The gear types of higher bycatch risk to seabirds that are being deployed in the NEAFC Convention Area are:

• midwater otter trawls and drifting longlines in NEAFC Regulatory Area 1 (RA 1)

• midwater otter trawls in the NEAFC regulatory areas 2 and 3 (RAs 2 and 3)

Northern gannets and auks are most likely to be vulnerable to bycatch from otter trawls (mainly midwater) and shearwaters to bycatch in drifting long lines.

Four seabird groups (fulmars, shearwaters, gannets, and auks) may be vulnerable to bottom otter trawls in NEAFC RA 1, fulmars particularly in the northern sector.

The available data suggest there is little fishing effort using static gears in the NEAFC Ras. This gear type tends to be generally of high bycatch risk to several seabird species.

ICES notes that the fishing effort data used in this technical service is incomplete, as they don’t include data from the Russian Federation, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Norway, or Portugal.