Atlantic Longline Take Reduction Team Established; First Meeting June 29-30 in Bethesda, MD
NOAA Fisheries Service is establishing a Take Reduction Team (TRT) to address the incidental mortality and serious injury of long-finned pilot whales and short-finned pilot whales in the Atlantic region of the pelagic longline fishery. The agency will seek input from the Atlantic Pelagic Longline TRT on scientific data related to stock structure, abundance, and human-caused mortality and serious injury of pilot whales. The TRT will focus on developing a plan to reduce incidental catch of pilot whales in the Atlantic pelagic longline fishery to a level approaching a zero mortality and serious injury rate within 5 years of implementation of the plan.
Most of the observed interactions of pilot whales with the pelagic longline fishery have occurred in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. Other commercial fisheries known to occasionally cause incidental mortality and serious injury of short-finned and long-finned pilot whales include the southern New England and mid-Atlantic midwater and bottom trawl fisheries targeting squid, mackerel, butterfish, and herring.
The first meeting will be held June 29 from 1-5pm, and June 30 from 8:30am-5pm at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, MD.
For more information, contact
Kristy.Long@noaa.gov.
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