Improving understanding of seabird bycatch in Scottish longline fisheries and exploring potential solutions

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to sincerely thank the skippers, crews and industry representatives of all the vessels that have carried an observer for data collection in the fishery. We would also like to convey our thanks to the vessel skippers that completed the questionnaire. There is no substitute for experience and the responses have enhanced our understanding of the views and concerns of industry and will add to all future discussions on the topic of seabird bycatch in the fishery.

We would like to thank the members of the Project Steering Group (PSG) from Marine Scotland, Marine Scotland Science and NatureScot for their useful insights, input on various report drafts that significantly improved this finished document and their patience, all of which helped ensure that the project was successfully completed in the face of some challenging circumstances.

We would also like to thank Duncan Allison and Conall McFedries of Marine Scotland Compliance, and James Dooley and Ruadhan Gillespie-Mules of Marine Scotland Science, for assistance with seabird sample storage and transport.

Finally, our thanks to Gudjon Mar Sigurdsson and Kim Baerum for useful input on mitigation approaches in Iceland and Norway.

This project was funded from the Scottish Government’s Contract Research Fund administered by the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS).

The data used in the production of mortality estimates and the modelling exercise was collected by observers working under the UK Bycatch Monitoring Programme which is funded by the UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Scottish Government.