CMS Distribution: General CONVENTION ON UNEP/CMS/ScC18/Inf.10.15.1 MIGRATORY 28 May 2014 SPECIES Original: English 18th MEETING OF THE SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL Bonn, Germany, 1-3 July 2014 Agenda Item 10.15.1 ASSESSMENT OF BYCATCH IN GILL NET FISHERIES (Final Revised Report, April 2013) Summary: Following a Scientific Council recommendation and financed with the support of Australia and the United Kingdom, a desk-top study dealing with both the impact of global gillnet fisheries on migratory species and bycatch mitigation measures for gillnet gear was conducted in 2010 and 2011 by Sextant Technology Ltd. The results were presented to the 17th Scientific Council Meeting th and 10 Meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2011. The Council’s Bycatch Working Group discussed the report and recommended that it required appropriate review by the Council and others. In view of the fact that the deadline for submission of the report was shortly before the Scientific Council and COP in 2011, the Working Group recommended that the report be reviewed intersessionally. The document was open for comments between November 2011 and October 2012. The attached document is a revised version of the report originally prepared. All comments received were considered by the consultants and taken on board where feasible. It should be noted that under the terms of the contract it was not possible to include additional data and re-run the analyses. Report to the Convention on Migratory Species Assessment of Bycatch in Gill Net Fisheries V2 15 April 2013 S. M.Waugh 1,2 D.P. Filippi 2 and R. Blyth 2, P.F. Filippi 2 1 Present address: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, PO Box 467, Wellington, New Zealand. [email protected] 2Sextant Technology Ltd, 116 Wilton Road, Wellington, New Zealand 1 2 Acknowledgements The report was funded by the United Nations Environment Programme under contract. We are grateful to Heidrun Frish and Barry Baker for their guidance in the preparation of the report. Thanks also to BirdLife International for supply of data for the analyses. The Ministry of Fisheries in New Zealand supplied detailed fishery data. Thanks to Cleo Small and David Kirby for technical discussions in the preparation of the research. We are grateful to Sea Around Us Project for provision of fishing effort data. Thanks to Project Global for provision of fishing effort and bycatch information. Thanks to Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Turkey), Swedish Board of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries & Rodrigues (Mauritius), Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries (Belgium), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer, Fisheries Attache Government of Malta, Vanuatu Fisheries Department, Government of St Helena, Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Food (Slovenia), Bahamas Department of Fisheries, New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries, Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries for their replies to our request for information. Thanks to parties to the CMS for their comments which assisted in improving the report. 3 Table of Contents I. Summary Executive .............................................................................................................................. 7 II. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 9 1. Definition of gillnet fishing ......................................................................................................... 11 2. Species groups – modes of interaction with gillnet fisheries ......................................... 13 III. Method ............................................................................................................................................... 15 1. Data search methods .................................................................................................................... 15 2. Gillnet method description ......................................................................................................... 16 a) Analysis method.......................................................................................................................... 16 b) Overlap analysis .......................................................................................................................... 16 c) Species included in the study ................................................................................................ 17 d) Species distribution maps ....................................................................................................... 17 e) Areas of high species diversity .............................................................................................. 19 f) Overlap between species and gillnet fisheries ................................................................. 22 3. Assumptions of the study ............................................................................................................ 22 4. Species impacted by gillnet fishing – ranking and potential for gillnet fishing to impact populations ............................................................................................................................ 27 IV. Results ................................................................................................................................................. 31 1. Fishery description ......................................................................................................................... 31 a) Global overview of the gillnet fisheries .............................................................................. 31 b) Gillnet fisheries in South Asia and South East Asia ........................................................ 36 c) Gillnet fisheries in Northwest Pacific ................................................................................... 37 d) Gillnet fisheries in East Asia .................................................................................................... 37 e) Gillnet fisheries in Northern Europe .................................................................................... 38 f) Gillnet fisheries in South America......................................................................................... 39 g) Gillnet fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea ........................................................................ 40 h) Gillnet fisheries in Africa .......................................................................................................... 41 4 i) Gillnet fisheries in Oceania ...................................................................................................... 42 2. Overlap analysis outputs .............................................................................................................. 45 a) Exposure index for all species ................................................................................................ 45 b) Exposure index by species group ......................................................................................... 49 3. Mitigation methods and their application in gillnet fisheries ........................................ 66 a) Visual Alerts .................................................................................................................................. 66 b) Acoustic Alerts: ............................................................................................................................ 67 c) Operational measures: .............................................................................................................. 68 d) Mitigation conclusions ............................................................................................................. 70 V. Discussion .............................................................................................................................................. 71 1. Species ................................................................................................................................................ 71 2. Area ...................................................................................................................................................... 71 3. Mitigation effects ............................................................................................................................ 72 4. Limitations of the study ................................................................................................................ 73 VI. Recommendations: ........................................................................................................................ 76 VII. Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................... 79 VIII. Annexes .............................................................................................................................................. 89 1. Marine species listed under the CMS part of the study ................................................... 89 2. EEZ statistics ..................................................................................................................................... 93 3. Results by overlap index ............................................................................................................100 4. Results by un-weighted exposure ..........................................................................................103 a) Un-weighted