1. Cetacean by-catch M.B. Santos Workshop Marine Environment and fisheries

2. By-catch has been identified as the main anthropogenic threat to cetaceans in Europe for most populations. For pinnipeds, by-catch is also known to occur  by-catch targets have been also included in the MSFD indicators As part of D1- Biodiversity: – at species level, 1.3 Population condition, 1.3.1. pop. demographic characteristics (including mortality rate) – Included as an indicator in several MS evaluations (n=9) – Proposed as common OSPAR indicator: “Mortality of seals and cetaceans due to bycatch”, HELCOM core indicator, – Indicator of pressure Introduction Workshop Marine Environment and fisheries

3. Through both the EU Regulation 812/2004, the Habitats Directive (and now the MSFD): requirement to monitor by-catch and ensure that it does not impact on the FCS/GES of the species over time Introduction (2) Workshop Marine Environment and fisheries

4. Policy Marine mammals EcosystemsClimate change Fisheries Societal demands Monitoring programme Set targets Management action Status & trends Identify priorities + Anticipate future priorities Devise indicators + reference points How we protect marine mammals Evaluate status

5. R 812/2004: monitoring (certain fleets) to obtain a bycatch estimate with a CV < 0.3. But low frequency of bycatch events observed  high CV MS can also monitor effort at 10% and 5% level (pilot schemes). Due to the cost involved, CV <0.3 almost impossible to attain using observers Pingers used but effect not monitored  we still do not know the true extent of bycatch or the potential impacts of mitigation measures “A preliminary assessment of harbour porpoise bycatch in the North Sea estimates that bycatch rates may be above any proposed reference limits, but the uncertainty is large”. Quantifying bycatch Workshop Marine Environment and fisheries

6. Several proposed targets: reduce the bycatch of small cetaceans below the “unacceptable” 1.7% of best population estimate, the Bergen Declaration set a “precautionary” bycatch rate of 1%. Because, ultimately, it is the impact of by-catch on population size that would indicate its effect on GES, information is needed on both the number of by-catches and population size. Our population estimates are also uncertain. We need (ideally) accurate bycatch and population size estimates to be able to draw conclusions. Quantifying effect on populations Workshop Marine Environment and fisheries

7. Setting targets Workshop Marine Environment and fisheries Directly comparable to the maximum net productivity rate, expressed as an annual percentage. “Simulation of a simple deterministic population dynamics model with assumed maximum net productivity rate of 4% found that 1.7% annual removal would allow a population to achieve 80% of its carrying capacity over a very long time horizon” 1.a percentage of abundance Example: ASCOBANS proposed target of: 1.7% of best population estimate

8. Setting targets Workshop Marine Environment and fisheries PBR level: the maximum number of animals, not including M, that may be removed from a stock while allowing it to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population (at or above the level that will result in maximum productivity). 2.the Potential Biological Removal (PBR) approach. 3.the IWC’s Revised Management Procedure (RMP) (CLA) The CLA fits a population dynamics model to a time series of abundance estimates and removals data while PBR uses a single value of minimum abundance.

9. Setting targets Workshop Marine Environment and fisheries The Catch Limit Algorithm (CLA) approach is recognized as the most appropriate method to set limits on cetacean bycatch; We still need explicit conservation and management objectives in quantitative terms for managing interactions between fisheries and cetacean populations at a European level;

10. Setting targets Workshop Marine Environment and fisheries Requirements for operationalising: define the conservation objectives to be used in the procedure; the time frame over which the procedure should be modelled to achieve the specified conservation objectives; delineation of the spatial areas to which the procedure is to be applied (i.e. appropriate management units). OSPAR M6 target “The annual bycatch rate of [marine mammal species] is reduced to below levels that are expected to allow conservation objectives to be met” ASCOBANS interim conservation objective “to allow populations to recover to and/or maintain 80% of carrying capacity in the long term”

11. Bycatch Risk Approach Workshop Marine Environment and fisheries 1- splits the population numbers into Management Areas (MA) 2- calculates take limits of species/area for any bycatch threshold level used. 3-using an expected bycatch rate x total fishing effort, 4-derives total number of bycaught animals by fishery 5-compare with any proposed take limit. “Reductions in bycatch should be considered as a target that will contribute to GES, but it is currently not possible to evaluate whether the indicator will provide an accurate assessment of GES”.

12. Thanks Aknowledgements Graham Pierce, Phil Hammond, Jan Haelters, Sinead Murphy, Eunice Pinn, Salvador García, M. José Gómez, WGMME, WGBYC, WKBYC