Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OCEAN SENTINEL (OCEAN SENTINEL)
Reporting period: 2018-01-01 to 2019-06-30
Research in conservation is increasingly sophisticated but there is a critical need for improving implementation of conservation measures. In the oceans fisheries are operating worldwide over nation’s Economic Exclusive Zones (EEZ) as well as over international waters. Better information on fisheries distribution and impact is required, within EEZ but especially in international waters where fisheries activities are not recorded at fine scale, to improve our knowledge of their impact and enforcement. The Proof of Concept Program OCEAN SENTINEL program was carried out between December 2018 and June 2019 to improve our knowledge on the fine scale interactions between wandering and Amsterdam albatrosses (two species threatened by fisheries) and fisheries operating in the Southern Indian Ocean. The program tested the possibility to use birds fitted with a new generation of loggers recording location and radar emissions as indicators of the presence of fishing boats. A total of 172 adult and juvenile birds were tagged, and their movements and the location of more than 10.000 radar detections were obtained. Juveniles had a much lower boat encounter rate than adults. In the EEZ around Crozet and Kerguelen all fishing boats in operation were detected by bird born tags, and most but not all had their AIS system ON. On the border of EEZ several vessels were detected in operation, with AIS irregularly ON. In international waters short encounters corresponded to encounters of vessels transiting the range zone of albatrosses, with AIS ON, whereas for long encounters corresponding to fishing vessel, half had no corresponding AIS. The first analyses from the program indicate that Ocean Sentinel was able to provide instantaneous information on the location of vessels for all declared fishing vessels in EEZ, including those switching OFF their AIS. In international sub-tropical waters many detection were made by albatrosses for large operating Asiatic fishing fleets where AIS information was available irregularly. The study shows the potential of using large wide ranging seabirds to patrol the ocean and improve implementation and enforcement of conservation measures.