John McConnaughey wrote------------------------
> "I don't recall a single seabird being caught in our fishing.  I would
> not expect to see many caught with this type of fishing gear either.
> I do not recall that the issue ever came up in reference to South
> Pacific long line fisheries, although the bicatch of turtles was
> certainly an issue."
>
> Ross Wanless replied-----------------------
> Nigel Brothers, in 1991, calculated that the Japanese Southern
> Bluefin Tuna Longline fishery OFF AUSTRALIA ALONE killed c.44 000
> albatrosses annually.
> -----------------------------------------
>
> Whilst it is indeed true that Nigel Brothers wrote this in 1991, it is
> somewhat irrelevant as a commentary to John McConnaughey's initial
> statement. John McConnaughey was talking about Samoa. He did mention
> the "South Pacific" which, maybe in some definitions, includes all of
> the water down to Antarctica, but most folks understand the "South
> Pacific" to exclude the temperate southern waters where this bluefin
> fishery operated.
>
> The small-scale longline fishery for yellowfin tuna in the tropical
> Pacific Islands described by John McConnaughey is a different fishery
> from the industrial-strength longline fishery for southern bluefin,
> which exists over a fairly limited area off Australia. Ross Wanless
> appears to be implying that you can statistically assume that
> historical seabird "catch" rates from the Southern Ocean can be
> extrapolated to the tropical Pacific Islands in the absence of other
> data. However, all indications I have seen are that this assumption
> would be invalid. Quite apart from the indications resulting from our
> scientific observer programme, and from our contact with island
> longliners, there are basic inferences that can be made on the basis
> of seabird species distributions, the relatively low abundance of
> prey, the size of hooks used and the size of local seabirds.
>
> It is going to be difficult to obtain realistic information about the
> incidence of seabird mortality resulting from longline fishing in
> general if potential information sources suspect that they are going
> to be misinterpreted or disbelieved. It is quite likely that John
> McConnaughey did NOT see a single seabird being caught in his longline
> fishing around Samoa, and he is correct to assume that he "would not
> expect to see many caught with this type of fishing gear either".
> Seabird populations do have big problems in the tropical South
> Pacific, but longlining is probably the least of them.
>
> Tim Adams
> Integrated Coastal Fisheries Management Project
> South Pacific Commission
> -----------------
>