New measures have been adopted by the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) Commission to better protect seabirds from fishing activities in the high seas.

Under the Conservation and Management Measure for minimising bycatch of seabirds in the SPFRMO Convention Area, fishing vessels in the SPRFMO high seas area will now be under a risk-based approach to seabird management with a focus on individual accountability. This means that the greater the risk a boat has of catching seabirds, the more management tools they must apply, such as line weighting and setting at night for hook fishing and using bird scaring lines when trawling.

The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) believes that individual responsibility encourages skipper and crew innovation and accountability for those boats with a higher risk of catching seabirds. AFMA says that these measures will have minimal impact on Australian fishing boats, given the low risk of interaction by Australian boats in this area.

AFMA will continue to focus on improving data collection and reporting, particularly for some species of albatrosses and petrels, to better understand any potential bycatch of species of concern in SPRFMO fisheries.

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