Working group on bycatch of protected species (WGBYC 2023)

• Main Authors: Basterretxea, Mikel, Bleeker, Katinka, Bluemel, Joanna, Boussarie, Germaine, Brevet, Mathieu, Ferreiro, Lucia Canas, Chatzispyrou, Ada, Christensen-Dalsgaard, Signe, von Dorrien, Christian, Cox, Samantha, Dinkel, Thaya, Dubroca, Laurent, Evans, Peter, Fernandez, Ruth, Fortuna, Caterina, Fotiadis, Nikolaos, Gutierrez Munoz, Paula, Helminen, Jani, Ferreiro, Iago Izquierdo, Kavanagh, Ailbhe, Kindt-Larsen, Lotte, Kingston, Al, Königson, Sara, Koschinski, Sven, Last, Ellen, Lefkaditou, Evgenia, Ligas, Alessandro, Lusseau, David, Lyssikatos, Marjorie, Bærum, Kim Magnus, Sigurdsson, Gudjon Mar, Marçalo, Ana, Moan, Andre, Mugerza, Estanis, Pärn, Henrik, Peltier, Hélène, Pinto, Carlos, Plevoets, Tim, Popov, Dimitar, Ringdahl, Katja, Uhlmann, Sebastian, Vasconcelos, Rita, Woźniczka, Adam, ICES WGBYC
• Other Authors: University of St Andrews.Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews.School of Biology, University of St Andrews.Sea Mammal Research Unit
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: International council for the exploration of the sea (ICES)/Conseil international pour l'exploration de la mer (CIEM) 2024
• Subjects: Bycatch; PETS act; Protected species; SH Aquaculture. Fisheries. Angling; SH; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10023/30491; https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.24659484

The Working Group on Bycatch of Protected Species (WGBYC) was established in 2007 and collates and analyses information from across the Northeast Atlantic and adjacent sea areas (Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Seas) related to the bycatch of protected, endangered and threatened (PET) species, including marine mammals, seabirds, turtles and sensitive fish species in com-mercial fishing operations. WGBYC seeks to describe and improve understanding of the likely impacts of fishing activities on affected populations, to inform on the suitability of existing at-sea monitoring programmes for assessing sensitive species bycatch, and to collate information on bycatch mitigation efforts. In 2023, the WG met in hybrid format and addressed eight Terms of Reference. The report provides an overview of data collection activities during 2022 including details of reported monitoring and fishing effort data, and bycatch records that were submitted to the WGBYC database in 2023 following a formal data call. Data were requested from 17 of the 20 ICES countries, six EU Mediterranean countries and two EU Black Sea countries. 23 of the 25 contacted countries submitted data. WGBYC further expanded the BEAM approach which was first developed in 2022 and is designed for evaluating and quantitatively assessing population impacts of bycatch across the full range of relevant taxa by considering various criteria, including data availability, quality and representativity, within group expertise and the existence of management/conservation thresh-olds or reference points. The BEAM approach underpins the requirement of the agreement between ICES and DGMARE for the provision of annual advice on bycatch. Estimated bycatch mor-tality ranges, by ecoregion and gear type, were produced for several mammal, seabird, turtle and fish species listed on the EU priority species list and the ICES Roadmap for Bycatch Advice ecoregion species list. In 2023 WGBYC developed a new semi-quantitative and repeatable methodology for evaluating bycatch risk for high ...