Pacific Islands Bycatch Initiatives in Coral Triangle Fisheries Forum

1. Coral Triangle Fishers Forum 15-17 June 2010 Bali, Indonesia

2. Bycatch Initiatives forPacific Islands from SPC Steve Beverly, Secretariat of the Pacific Community

3. Themes • Fishing gear experiments • Protected species ToT workshop • Awareness materials • Tools • Databases • Lessons learned

4. Deep setting technique, or • Effects of eliminating shallow hooks from tuna longline sets on target and non-target species in the Hawaii-based pelagic longline fishery

5. No shallow hooks • Reduce bycatch of epipelagic and protected species • Ensure that all hooks fish below 100 meters of depth • Determine if method is operationally feasible within existing fishery • Analyze changes in catch composition

6. Method • Uses mainline as floatline • 3 kg lead weights are attached directly to mainline to sink all gear below 100 meters • TDRs attached to all sets at first and middle hook positions • 2000 hooks per set

7. Operational plan • 7 trips • 90 sets - alternated • 45 control vs 45 deep sets • No running or time break between paired sets • Used same gear/bait for all sets • 14 sets per trip • Most trips lasted 21 days • Trips ran from June-December 2006

8. Catch % by gear type Deep setting: Increases  No effect Decreases 

9. Lessons learned • Fisheries dependent experiments work better if the vessel has been chartered or otherwise compensated • Just because a mitigation method works well does not mean that it will be taken up or put into regulations • Fishermen are very concerned about cost – in time and money of mitigation methods • Fishermen come up with solutions

10. Large circle hook experiments • Establish cooperative research relationships • Test large circle hooks in existing Pacific Island domestic longline fisheries • Determine the efficacy of large circle hooks at catching target species compared with the hooks currently in use in the fisheries • Promote the use of large circle hooks in the fisheries

11. What is a circle hook? Polynesian hook Steel circle hook Point/shank 90o Rotating hook

12. Other longline hooks Japan tuna hook J hook/Spanish hook Terashima hook

13. Method • Change half of vessels’ hooks to16/0 stainless steel offset circle hooks • Begin first set by alternating hooks • All other sets have a random mixing of hooks • Maintain a 50/50 ratio • Monitor all catch by hook type • Make no other changes to fishing operations • Utilize local observers

17. Lessons learned • Many fishermen are already using circle hooks • Cooperative research involving fishermen, fisheries departments, RFMOs, IGOs, and NGOs can work well • Identification of hooks by type and size is very important • 50-100,000 hooks needed for analysis

18. Protected species ToT workshop 2009

19. Lessons learned • Training of Trainers probably needs to be an ongoing activity because of turnover • Resource materials and/or protected species course should be delivered as a generic finished product that can be amended according to individual country needs and practices • Fulfills obligations of exporting countries

20. Awareness materials • Manuals • Brochures • Posters/stickers • Species ID guides

27. Lessons learned • Print limited numbers of awareness materials as things change rapidly and mistakes are made (eg, teracima/Terashima) • Initial bi-lingual or tri-lingual material saves translation and reproduction costs down the road • Include distribution costs in budget proposals • Ship as cargo not as baggage

28. Tools given out by SPC • De-hookers • Line cutters • Bolt cutters • Dip nets

29. Alternative tools

30. Lessons learned • Money can be saved by being innovative. Line cutter made with seat belt cutter cost $2.50. Commercial line cutter costs $200. • De-hookers can be made from common materials • Buying in bulk saves money. • De-hookers, line cutters, and dip nets have other useful applications on a longline boat so are an easy sell.

31. Bycatch Databases • Catch and effort database from logbooks and observer reports – in progress at SPC • Document database – in progress at SPC • Lessons learned – budget a lot for this kind of activity – it takes longer than you think, set up data bases as living documents, and hire a webmaster

32. Terimah Kasih dan Sampai Jumpa