September 15, 2021 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:
The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council strongly supported a study that found tori lines are far more effective than blue-dyed fish bait for seabird bycatch mitigation.
The tori line study was conducted from February to June 2021 under an experimental fishing permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Tori lines (also known as bird scaring lines or streamer lines) have shown promise in reducing incidental interactions with seabirds in the Hawai‘i deep-set longline fishery. The permit allowed tori lines to be tested without the use of blue-dyed bait, which is an existing seabird mitigation requirement in the fishery that has been shown to be less effective than other required measures over time.
The project is a collaboration between the Council, NMFS and the Hawaii Longline Association. The field experiment comprised 87 sets deployed during seven trips from three Hawai‘i-based commercial longline vessels. Participating vessels alternated sets between the two methods each day and carried a video-based system that electronically monitored seabird behavior.
Results showed that Laysan and black-footed albatross were 1.5 times less likely to attempt to attack, and 4 times less likely to contact baited hooks when tori lines are set versus when fishermen use blue-dyed bait. Ultimately, this leads to the seabirds being 14 times less likely to be hooked.
Study author and SSC member Milani Chaloupka noted that “tori lines are economical, fishermen like them and the improved design has reduced entanglement with fishing gear.”
A report from an earlier tori line project in 2019-2020 is available here: https://tinyurl.com/torilinesreport.
The SSC meeting continues through Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Instructions on connecting to the web conference, agenda and briefing documents are posted at www.wpcouncil.org/event/141st-scientific-and-statistical-committee-virtual-meeting.