3 Overseas Fisheries Development of Council, Taipei SUMMARY

Noting the increasing global attentions on the conservation of the ecosystem, the issue of incidental catches of ecological related species in fishing operations has been of great concerns. Taiwan is one of the major tuna longline fishing players in Atlantic Ocean. This is the first attempt to estimate seabird incidental catch of Taiwan longline fisheries in this area. To collect scientific information for target species as well as incidental catch species, Taiwan has launched observer programs since 2002. There were 35 observer trips from 2002 to 2006.The coverage rate was 5.33%. The observed days were 4755. According to the data collected, the seabird incidental catch rate (BPUE) in each 5*5 degree grid square varied from 0 to 0.2266 per 1000 hooks with the average BPUE of 0.0075 per 1000 hooks. As for the seabird incidental catch distribution, the BPUE were highest in the areas between 35-45 ﾟ S and 35-45 ﾟ W and between 30 ﾟ-40 ﾟ S and 5 ﾟ-15 ﾟ W. On the contrary, the BPUE was low in tropical area. By using the effort data from Task II and the BPUE from observers, the preliminary estimated average number of seabird incidental catch was 936 per year. The estimated impact was low because the efforts of Taiwanese fisheries largely concentrated in the tropical area where the incidental catch rate was low