CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Considerable little information on the impacts of small-scale fisheries on marine wildlife is available around the globe. We assessed for the first time marine bird and mammal attendance at Chub mackerel Scomber japonicus semi-industrial coastal purse seine fishery in northern Argentina. Information on the attendance and associated interaction with fishing gear was gathered during a fishery run from late spring 2007 to early summer 2008. Sixteen marine top predator species attended vessels, and the most abundant seabirds (percent of overall individuals and percent of occurrence) were the Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus (25% and 40% respectively), and White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis (24% and 47% respectively). Other attending bird species were the Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophrys (18.5% and 12% respectively) and South American Tern Sterna hirundinacea (30% and 22% respectively). The most abundant marine mammals species was the South American Sea Lion Otaria flavescens (2% and 8% respectively). The analysis of environmental and operational variability affecting the abundance of the four main seabird species indicated a clear spatial variability in the numbers of seabirds attending coastal purse seiners. Other factors affecting the abundance of attending seabird species included fishing operation, time of day, seasonality, and wind intensity and wind direction. Most of the marine wildlife-fishery interactions (>85%) were recorded during hauling operations. This corresponded largely to White-chinned petrels on the water lightly contacting the fishing gear, followed by South American sea lions near the gear without directly contacting it. Still, neither seabird nor marine mammal species were observed to be incidentally taken during 82 fishing operations. The results of this study showed that the semi-industrial purse seine fishery operating in coastal waters in northern Argentina may a have a relatively minor impact on some marine top predator populations mainly because (1) the fishing grounds are close to shore, and at relatively shallow depths, and (2) there is a displacement of the fishing fleet away from dense schooling areas chiefly due to economical factors. Still, it has to be stressed that data were obtained during operations in which the levels of discards (

enviar mensaje