'Petrel discoverer' Hadoram Shirihai - RSPB

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Oli Yates (ATF Co-ordinator) EMERGING MITIGATION Trial success for hook pods As reported in last year’s Sea Change, the Global Seabird Programme (GSP) is working with Fishtek (www.fishtekmarine.com) to develop a ‘hook pod’ (formerly called the ‘bait pod’) for pelagic longline fisheries. Hook pods prevent seabirds from accessing baits before a pressure-sensitive valve operates at a pre-determined depth to release baited hooks. They are attached to the branch-line and encapsulate the point and barb of the hooks. When the pods reach a pre-determined depth, they release and the hooks fall free of the pods and sink to the desired fishing depth. In December 2009, Ben Sullivan (GSP Co-ordinator) and Oli Yates (Albatross Task Force Co-ordinator) conducted at-sea trials onboard the FV Strike Force in an eastern Australian tuna fishery under permits issued by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority. The key objective of the trials was to test the effectiveness A baited hook with hook pod during line setting Hook pods neatly stored in the setting bins Oli Yates (ATF Co-ordinator) of the most recent prototype. We trialled a range of bait types, including large and small mackerel, squid and live bait, in a range of hooking positions. We also investigated several techniques for storing the pods in the setting bin to create an efficient setting and hauling operation. The pod proved straightforward to apply for all bait types and hooking positions and the crew found it simple to set, retrieve and store. The new prototype pod has 60 g of lead incorporated into the housing, so that for the first 10 m (or until the pressure release valve is operated) the baited hook has 60 g on the hook. In the trials, the baited hook inside the pod sank at twice the speed of standard fishing gear. This means that not only is the barb and point of the hook covered by the pod, but that the baited hook sinks close to the stern of the vessel at a rate that makes it difficult for most birds to access. The results of the trials were very encouraging and we are hopeful that with some fine-tuning we will have a near-final prototype for testing headto-head against seabirds in mid 2010. For further details, please contact ben.sullivan@rspb.org.uk
Ben Lascelles (Marine IBA Co-ordinator) Black petrel The Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative: working towards High Seas MPAs Only 0.5% of the world’s seas have any form of protection. This is in stark contrast to the progress that has been made on land, where protected areas cover 11% of the Earth’s land surface. In 2002, global leaders at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg committed to achieving a global network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by 2012. While some countries have advanced the identification of MPAs in their territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zones, the open ocean and deep seas remain some of the most poorly understood and least protected places on the planet. In 2008, the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted scientific criteria for identifying “ecologically or biologically significant areas” (EBSAs) and guidance for designing networks of protected areas in places beyond national jurisdiction. More importantly, nations also agreed to apply these criteria to identify and protect such areas. Wandering albatross (antipodean) In 2009, the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (www.GOBI.org) was established to help governments to apply the EBSA scientific criteria and guidance. GOBI is an international scientific collaboration facilitated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature with core support from the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. It is designed to assist states and relevant regional and global organisations to identify EBSAs using the best available scientific data, tools and methods. BirdLife International, which joined GOBI in 2009 following the CBD expert workshop held in Ottawa, Canada, is contributing its expertise and experience relating to identifying Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in the marine environment. BirdLife has produced several case studies for GOBI of how EBSAs may be identified using seabird tracking data and a Marine IBA approach, which can be found on the GOBI website. Through GOBI, BirdLife has been promoting seabirds as excellent MARINE IBAS indicators of the state of the wider marine environment, and advocating that identifying an appropriate network of MPAs for them is likely to have significant benefits to wider marine life and help us move towards the sustainable management of the oceans. The Global Seabird Programme has plans to conduct a more complete analysis of the Global Procellariiform Tracking Database (www.seabirdtracking.org) to help identify a network of sites that are in need of protection, and promote them through relevant policy mechanisms such as CBD. The work under GOBI ultimately aims to help countries meet the CBD and World Summit on Sustainable Development goals to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss, apply ecosystem approaches and establish representative MPA networks by 2012. For further details, please contact ben.lascelles@birdlife.org Ben Lascelles (Marine IBA Co-ordinator)
Page 1 and 2: Welcome to the sixth issue of Sea C
Page 3: Tori lines on an Argentinean trawle
Page 7 and 8: Ben Sullivan (Global Seabird Progra
Page 9 and 10: Sue Waugh (Forest & Bird, New Zeala
Page 11 and 12: Hadoram has paid tribute to the Zin

'Petrel discoverer' Hadoram Shirihai - RSPB

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