An assessment of cetacean mortality in the gillnet fishery of the Northern Arabian Sea

An assessment of cetacean mortality in the gillnet fishery of the Northern Arabian Sea

Year of publication 2013

Product type Meeting

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Gillnet is the main fishing gear being used for catching tu and other large pelagic in the Northern Arabian Sea. A large gillnet fleet is based in India, Pakistan, Iran, Oman and Somalia (IOTC, 2013). Gillnet being an indiscrimite fishing gear enmeshes not only target species but also a large number of non-target species (Tregenza and Collett, 1998; Tregenza et al., 1997) Entanglement of some threatened and protected animals including dolphins and whales in gillnets is consider to be a point of concern for fisheries scientists and magers. Gillnet being used in Pakistan, Iran and some countries have length more than 2.5 km, therefore, non-compliant to United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 46/215 and IOTC Resolution 12/12 which prohibit the use of large- scale driftnets on the high seas. These large scale gillnetting is more harmful to non target species especially cetaceans. In comparison to other countries of the area, tu fishing in Pakistan and Iran is based on large scale gillnets, therefore, as expected cetacean’s interaction with gillnet is comparatively very high in these two countries. It is estimated that more than 7,000 gillnetters are operating in these two countries. Some of the vessels in both the countries have double registration both in Iran and Pakistan.In Pakistan, about 500 vessels are dedicatedly engaged in catching tu (Moazzam, 2012) whereas in Iran about 6,500 are involved in this fishery (Naderi, 2012)

Statutory body / Meeting title Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)

Meeting symbol IOTC-2013-WPEB09-28

Meeting Session Number 9

Language English