Seabird bycatch vulnerability in pelagic longline fisheries based on modelling of a long-term dataset

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
CAN ZHOU ◽  
NIGEL BROTHERS

Summary The incidental mortality of seabirds in fisheries remains a serious global concern. Obtaining unbiased and accurate estimates of bycatch rates is a priority for seabird bycatch mitigation and demographic research. For measuring the capture risk of seabird interactions in fisheries, the rate of carcass retrieval from hauled gear is commonly used. However, reliability can be limited by a lack of direct capture observations and the substantial pre-haul bycatch losses known to occur, meaning incidence of seabird bycatch is underestimated. To solve this problem, a new measure (bycatch vulnerability) that links an observed interaction directly to the underlying capture event is proposed to represent the capture risk of fishery interactions by seabirds. The new measure is not affected by subsequent bycatch loss. To illustrate how to estimate and analyse bycatch vulnerability, a case study based on a long-term dataset of seabird interactions and capture confirmation is provided. Bayesian modelling and hypothesis testing were conducted to identify important bycatch risk factors. Competition was found to play a central role in determining seabird bycatch vulnerability. More competitive environments were riskier for seabirds, and larger and thus more competitive species were more at risk than smaller sized and less competitive species. Species foraging behaviour also played a role. On the other hand, no additional effect of physical oceanic condition and spatio-temporal factors on bycatch vulnerability was detected. Bycatch vulnerability is recommended as a replacement for the commonly used bycatch rate or carcass retrieval rate to measure the capture risk of an interaction. Combined with a normalized contact rate, bycatch vulnerability offers an unbiased estimate of seabird bycatch rate in pelagic longline fisheries.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. e0202037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Njaratiana Rabearisoa ◽  
Philippe S. Sabarros ◽  
Evgeny V. Romanov ◽  
Vincent Lucas ◽  
Pascal Bach

2013 ◽  
Vol 70 (12) ◽  
pp. 1785-1791 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Capello ◽  
P. Bach ◽  
E. Romanov

The management and conservation of large pelagic fish commonly rely on fisheries data and thus crucially depend on our understanding of the fish response to the fishing gear. Stock assessment of both tropical and temperate tuna strongly leans on the catch statistics derived from pelagic longline fisheries. However, the role of the spatial distribution of catches of tuna and bycatch species over the gear, which can affect the estimated tuna abundance, is still neglected. In this study, we analyzed data obtained from 147 instrumented pelagic longline sets equipped with hook timers and temperature depth recorders to characterize the distribution of hooking contacts and success at a fine temporal and spatial scale. Scientific surveys were carried out in the Central–South Pacific Ocean (French Polynesia), targeting tropical (Thunnus albacares, Thunnus obesus) and temperate (Thunnus alalunga) tuna. Data analysis based on spatial point processes and stochastic modeling demonstrate the presence of spatio-temporal clusters for both hooking contacts and hooking success. The comparative analysis of the observed spatio-temporal patterns for different oceanographic zones revealed the persistent structure of the clusters, suggesting that they are neither related to local environmental conditions nor to the spatial distribution of prey species.


2015 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando N. Fiedler ◽  
Gilberto Sales ◽  
Bruno B. Giffoni ◽  
Dagoberto Port ◽  
Rodrigo Sant'Ana ◽  
...  

Abstract In the presente study, cluster analysis was performed to classify 1080 interviews with captains of national pelagic longline fleet (2000 to 2011), and 38 trips of the chartered fleet (2003 to 2008), in relation to the composition of species landed. For the national fleet 4 groups were identified: 1 - Albacores, 2 - Blue shark, 3 - Swordfish, and 4 - Dolphinfish. For the chartered fleet 3 groups were identified: 1 - Swordfish, 2 - Blue shark, and 3 - Albacores. The results indicated that part of the national fleet change their strategies according to the availability of the target species and market demand (internal and external). A part of the fleet from Espírito Santo state operates in the region between December and March, exclusively to capture dolphinfish. The chartered fleet differed from the national one as regards the fishing areas of each target species, mainly as regards swordfish and blue shark. Despite the great difference in the data sets, it is evident that both the national and the chartered fleets operated in accordance with their peculiarities and technological development, adopting strategies that optimize catches and net profits per trip.


Author(s):  
G. Bareth ◽  
U. Lussem ◽  
J. Menne ◽  
J. Hollberg ◽  
J. Schellberg

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Forage monitoring in grassland is an important task to support management decisions. Spatial data on (i) yield,(ii) quality, and (iii) floristic composition are of interest. The spatio-temporal variability in grasslands is significant and requires fast and low-cost methods for data delivery. Therefore, the overarching aim of this contribution is the investigation of low-cost and non-calibrated UAV-derived RGB imagery for forage monitoring. Study area is the Rengen Grassland Experiment (RGE) in Germany which is a long-term field experiment since 1941. Due to the experiment layout, destructive biomass sampling during the growing period was not possible. Hence, non-destructive Rising Plate Meter (RPM) measurements, which are a common method to estimate biomass in grasslands, were carried out. UAV campaigns with a Canon Powershot 110 mounted on a DJI Phantom 2 were conducted in the first growing season in 2014. From the RGB imagery, the RGB vegetation index (RGBVI) and the Grassland Index (GrassI) introduced by Bendig et al. (2015) and Bareth et al. (2015), respectively, were computed. The RGBVI and the GrassI perform very well against the RPM measurements resulting in R<sup>2</sup> of 0.84 and 0.9, respectively. These results indicate the potential of low-cost UAV methods for grassland monitoring and correspond well to the studies of Viljanen et al. (2018) and Näsi et al. (2018).</p>


2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 708-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Aaron MacNeil ◽  
John K. Carlson ◽  
Lawrence R. Beerkircher

Abstract MacNeil, M. A., Carlson, J. K., and Beerkircher, L. R. 2009. Shark depredation rates in pelagic longline fisheries: a case study from the Northwest Atlantic. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 708–719. A suite of modelling approaches was employed to analyse shark depredation rates from the US Atlantic pelagic longline fishery. As depredation events are relatively rare, there are a large number of zeroes in pelagic longline data and conventional generalized linear models (GLMs) may be ineffective as tools for statistical inference. GLMs (Poisson and negative binomial), two-part (delta-lognormal and truncated negative binomial, T-NB), and mixture models (zero-inflated Poisson, ZIP, and zero-inflated negative binomial, ZINB) were used to understand the factors that contributed most to the occurrence of depredation events that included a small proportion of whale damage. Of the six distribution forms used, only the ZIP and T-NB models performed adequately in describing depredation data, and the T-NB and ZINB models outperformed the ZIP models in bootstrap cross-validation estimates of prediction error. Candidate T-NB and ZINB model results showed that encounter probabilities were more strongly related to large-scale covariates (space, season) and that depredation counts were correlated with small-scale characteristics of the fishery (temperature, catch composition). Moreover, there was little evidence of historical trends in depredation rates. The results show that the factors contributing to most depredation events are those already controlled by ships' captains and, beyond novel technologies to repel sharks, there may be little more to do to reduce depredation loss in the fishery within current economic and operational constraints.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 2049-2067
Author(s):  
Karmen L. Porter ◽  
Janna B. Oetting ◽  
Loretta Pecchioni

Purpose This study examined caregiver perceptions of their child's language and literacy disorder as influenced by communications with their speech-language pathologist. Method The participants were 12 caregivers of 10 school-aged children with language and literacy disorders. Employing qualitative methods, a collective case study approach was utilized in which the caregiver(s) of each child represented one case. The data came from semistructured interviews, codes emerged directly from the caregivers' responses during the interviews, and multiple coding passes using ATLAS.ti software were made until themes were evident. These themes were then further validated by conducting clinical file reviews and follow-up interviews with the caregivers. Results Caregivers' comments focused on the types of information received or not received, as well as the clarity of the information. This included information regarding their child's diagnosis, the long-term consequences of their child's disorder, and the connection between language and reading. Although caregivers were adept at describing their child's difficulties and therapy goals/objectives, their comments indicated that they struggled to understand their child's disorder in a way that was meaningful to them and their child. Conclusions The findings showed the value caregivers place on receiving clear and timely diagnostic information, as well as the complexity associated with caregivers' understanding of language and literacy disorders. The findings are discussed in terms of changes that could be made in clinical practice to better support children with language and literacy disorders and their families.


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