Coral Triangle Fishers Forum

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Coral Triangle Fishers Forum

• 15-17 June 2010
• Bali, Indonesia

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Bycatch Initiatives forPacific Islands from SPC

• Steve Beverly,
• Secretariat of the Pacific Community

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Themes

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Catch by gear type
Deep setting Increases ? No effect Decreases ?

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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

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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

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What is a circle hook?

• Polynesian hook

• Steel circle hook

• Point/shank 90o

• Rotating hook

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Other longline hooks

• Japan tuna hook

• J hook/Spanish hook

• Terashima hook

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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

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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

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Protected species ToT workshop 2009
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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

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Awareness materials

• Manuals
• Brochures
• Posters/stickers
• Species ID guides

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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

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Tools given out by SPC

• De-hookers
• Line cutters
• Bolt cutters
• Dip nets

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Alternative tools
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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.

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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

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