Drivers and barriers in the uptake of seabird bycatch mitigation measures and related conservation actions

ANTON WOLFAARDT, MARCO FAVERO, IGOR DEBSKI

Wellington

Workshop; Eighth Meeting of the ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group; 2017

Acuerdo sobre la Conservación de Albatros y Petreles

One of the main objectives of the Agreement?s Seabird Bycatch Working Group is to help facilitate and support efforts to assess, mitigate and reduce seabird bycatch. Mechanisms to achieve this aim include the development and provision of information, products and advice to assist relevant national and international organisations responsible for fisheries management (and the fisheries industry) in achieving these bycatch assessment and reduction objectives. During discussions at SBWG7, the Working Group highlighted the importance of investigating the barriers and drivers in the uptake of best practice seabird bycatch mitigation measures so as to better understand how to address or take advantage of these. The purpose of this paper is to initiate this task. We propose an outline of the main issues that should form part of the investigation, the objectives and scope of work, and invite comments on the proposal and participation in the process. The ultimate goal of this process is to help identify ways to improve the uptake of best practice bycatch mitigation measures in those fisheries overlapping with albatrosses and petrels.