| Summary: | ICAWA : International Conference AWA, Dakar, SEN, 13-/12/2016 - 15/12/2016 Situated in West Africa, Senegal has 700 km of coastline characterized by a large Eastern Boundary Upwelling Ecosystem providing significant biological productivity. Small-scale fishing plays an important role in the national economy of Senegal. The fishing gear used has a potentially direct or indirect impact on seabirds. To examine and evaluate this impact surveys were conducted on eight landing sites. Field surveys (2-3 days) took place in 2015 based on a standardized interview with questionnaire conducted with 225 small-scale fishermen. The results obtained indicate that longlines are the fishing gear that causes the highest rate of annual accidental seabird catch (63 % of seabird caugth (n = 702)), followed by handlines (16%) and anchored gillnet (6 %). The Pomarine Skua (Stercorarius pomarinus) is the most captured bird annually (29 % of total captured birds), closely followed by the Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) (28 % of captured birds) and the Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) (13 % of captured birds). The village of Yoff is the landing site which has the highest rate of annual seabird catch with 39% of the total catch indicated, followed by Kayar with 19 % and Saint Louis with 14%, both situated on the Grande Côte. Further studies should be conducted in the entire Senegalese-Mauritanian coast in particular in the northern part of Senegal, to better evaluate the annual catch of seabirds. A great collaboration should also be established with longliners, handliners and anchored gillnet fishers to better quantify incidental catch of seabirds by the artisanal fishing gear and set up mitigation actions.
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