Workshop Description:
Data gaps in fishing effort, bycatch rates, and the fate of animals post-capture, and trends for populations impede assessment of bycatch and constrain management action. Working with governments to reduce bycatch has been a
driver for the creation of the open-source Bycatch Risk Assessment (ByRA) toolbox, used to create spatially explicit bycatch risk analysis. This GIS toolbox allows spatial/temporal assessment and visualization of bycatch risk using any amount or type of data,
identifying areas for research and management actions while accounting for uncertainty in results. In Chile, there are critical gaps about distribution and abundance for most marine mammal species, and a lack of data on species most affected by fisheries
bycatch. As part of a Lenfest Ocean project including national and international scientists and managers, we have analyzed existing data and generated methods to characterize the spatial and seasonal distribution and abundance of fishing boats, gear, and marine
mammals. We have chosen 15 areas of presumptive high bycatch risk nested in four larger regions along the coast of Chile, including industrial and artisanal fisheries. For this workshop, we will demonstrate how we modeled bycatch risk using examples of fisheries
and marine mammal species with varying amounts of data. Examples will include: right whales/crab traps (high uncertainty), sperm whales/artisanal Chilean sea bass (medium uncertainty), Dusky dolphins and South American sea lions/Artisanal pelagic purse-seine
(low uncertainty). We will discuss how building collaborations with researchers and institutions has been an important step towards identifying and filling gaps in knowledge about cetaceans in Chile these past three years. We will schedule time for discussions
on ByRA techniques for workshop participants. ByRA results can provide agencies with information on areas and seasons of bycatch risk, and risk levels for fishing gear, which support precautionary actions and policies, and inform future research and management.
