Understanding Japan's National Plan of Action forSharks and Seabirds

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GLOBAL GUARDIAN TRUST
Illustration: Takahiro Chuma； Supervised by: Consultative Committee for Sharks & Seabirds

Educational material for better understanding of Japan's NPOA-Seabirds & NPOA-Sharks

I'm proud ofmy fishery

you're not justcatching tuna,
you're using
your brain as
well

so from now
on we're gonna
face up to thebycatch

what?

problemnothing,what donothing

you meanby that?

■The distribution of the major tuna species
Because tuna are distributed worldwide, international / regional management
is required.
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hey Pop--tonight10。
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let's put our heads
OK son, I'll give it

together on ideas

my best shot

for a new tactic50。
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160。W140。W120。W100。W80。W60。W40。W20。W0。Edishes andcome andbluefin tuna
help you.

southern bluefin tuna albacore tunabigeye tunayellowfin tuna

bluefin and southern blue tuna spawning grounds

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S20。E

I'm home˜Welcomeback,
dearPop!!

You've beengone for 6
monthsI'll getdinner readyHow haveright away

you been,son?

Did you
catch a lot oftuna this timetoo?

As usual,this fish
thatPop broughtback isgreat!!

−1−

Um...well,I caught
a lot oftuna but

there's

I was reallysomethingtroubled

I've got toby the bird

thinkabout.

Well,actually,

catch

What'sthat?

Huh?

Spaced out?!
What's wrong
with you?

Maybe

What'she's just a

he talking

bit spaced

about?

out?

Well, what is

You meanit then?

"bird catch"?

−2−

,
glug
glug

How wereyou guysUm,yeah....
that's it

Stop being

catching

so foolish!

tuna?

Long,

Don't youyeah,know that

longlineson?

Its longline,

Oh,

Strongnotline!!

strongline!!

Well, um,
what is it
actually?

right....
OK...

Longlines are long ropes with lots of smaller ropes and fish
hooks hung off them. Its used as a way of catching fish under
the sea surface.

Its really kind of like anunderwater game of trying
to eat an apple hanging
off a string.

−3−

They don't catch
too many fish and theyLonglines were

don't pollute the ocean

inventedso they're worldwide

by Japanbelieved to be thebest fishingmethod forthe environment.

BamGosh,best inWhatever!!

the world,cool...

What wasthat for?

There we werein the middle
of a bunch ofalbatrosses andended up
hooking them

When I'm fishing

Alba...

in the Southern

Al....

Ocean or theNorth Pacific,
its really becoming
a problem−4−uh-huhAlbatrosswhen boats at
sea put out baited
hooks or dump fish
waste its like akind of feast forthemin otherwords,

hang out
at the sea surface
eating dead fish
and fish eggs

they're flying around the boat eating the baited hooks
like it's food and the hooks get stuck inside the albatross

its called"incidentalcatch"

I get it,so that is
why you're

but birds areright now

like fish, so its

its bigprobably OK tocatchingproblemcatch a lot of

birds

worldwide

them, right?

−5−

There are 14 species ofalbatross in the world

So itsAnd amongthese somespecies' numbers

necessary tooh, right...

protect thosespeciesare decreasing

In other words,
worldwide,
we've said
we're going towork together
to protect thealbatross

・・・・

uh-huhthis iswhat I was
Also, Japan has established the Ecologically-Related Species
Working Group (ERSWG) under the Commission for theConservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) and worldwide
under the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)'s International
Plan of Action (IPOA) it was decided that each country should
establish a National Plan of Action.

−6−

getting atfrom thebeginning!

but, is there anYa..

easy way toYa..

protect them?

researchinstitutes

Univercities

well, the Japan

Japan Fishery Agency

are researching

Fisheries Agency,

ways of avoiding

research institutes,

incidental catch.

universities andwe fishermen
Fishermen

so that they
don't try towhen albatrosses

eat the baited

come near the boathooks

and they're in that
danger zone, we'recoming up withtactics−7−tactics?

well,

traditional -type of fishing vessel

one is called
the tori polefishing vessel using a "tori pole"

we attach a long pole to the stern ofthe boat, and attached to that is a towed rope witha lot of bird scaring tapes that flutter in the wind
its a method to keep the birds from coming near the bait

albatrosses
have a wing spanmsy

so cluthey're not goodat making smallof over 2 meters

movements or

so they're reallystaying stationary

big birds

in the air

this tactic
can reduce

so whenwe have theack!

so they don't

bird catch

get hooked

to one third"tori pole"of normal

they can't fly in
low and takethe baitso much!?
super!

−8−when we cast thebut therebait, the rope andis a weak

the bird scaring tapes

point toneed to be right overthis tactic

it so the birds would
have to manueuver

so, we must change
the bird scaring tapes
according to thewe have to use our own

length of the "tori pole"ideas suited to theand the wind direction

exact place and timeto get the desired
result

isn't there angosh, that's tougheasier way?

frozen bait floats
plinknkOh!

plothere's also our
method of getting
the bait to sinkthawed bait

faster byhoshobw

thawing it−9−The deepest theywould dive is about
5 meters, and so
the faster the bait
sinks past this depth,?
eally

the less the chanceRthe albatross cangrab it.

And then also,
albatrosses
are not goodat diving

Albatross have very good eyesight

rewhe

is it
becomes blue

so we also have a method of dyeing bait a
blue color so they can't see itthat method isbut althoughquite effective

this method
is effective

but there's aactually, it makes
the bird catch nearlyzero

downside interms of thehandling
costs being
higher− 10 −

it takes us a week in the workshop
with 6 people to do the coloring

and we have lots of fish to color so it
costs us money

and ifthe albatross
so thatis hooked

if the bird is still

method isn't

what canalive we try toperfect

you docarefully remove

either, is it?

about it?

the hookwell!
oodgI'm
if it has recovered then release it over the sea

check the bird's condition on deckclean off as much water and dirt
from the bird as possible
if it hasn't recovered then discard it
to the sea
At such times, "dead" must be recordedon the bycatch survey form

− 11 −

hwahhthere's

It seems likesomethingprotecting

but thethe albatross

else?!

problem isis a lot of work

not just
albatross atthe surface

there's also

becausebesides tunaa problem insharks are

we also catchthe seaa lot lesssharksas wellvaluablethan tuna
there area lot of boats
that justthrow themaway

but a whole shark has lots of different practical uses
fish meat products like sashimi, surimi and fish cakecartilage for medicinal use

teeth for accessories

internal organs forhealth and beauty
products
skin for briefcases and belts

fins for soup

− 12 −

isn't it a waste to throw
all those sharks away?

we're not likely
maybe

nope, we're not

to drive themreally catching

to extinctionthat many of

any time soonthemthen is itnecessary touse somekind of tactic
for sharks
too?

really?

there's one

there are a few

that's goodshark that's

sharks like thesereally abundantthat are socalled "blue shark"abundant that
we end up
catching a lot ofthem− 13 −

all the same,
do you think
we can juststand back anddo nothing?

well, they are
not going extinct
are they?
what areyou saying?

there's no point intrying to manage

it's important they

sharks after the

we keep track of

population has alreadyhow much of certain

crashedspecies are caught

that's true…

− 14 −

so, from now on
we've got to manage

sharks are part

shark resourcesof the ocean.
We can't avoid
catching them.

isn't Pop angbaof course

tuna fishermen?
but he's got to
pay attention to

its a pain
what a pain!

butalbatross...
and sharks...

problems
associated withfishing are a

we can't justpart of the work

ignore them

− 15 −

I'm proud of
my fishery

you're not justcatching tuna,
you're using
your brain as
well

so from now
on we're gonna
face up to thebycatch

what?

problemnothing,

what donothingyou meanby that?

hey Pop--tonight
let's put our heads
OK son, I'll give it

together on ideas

my best shot

for a new tactic

Let meclear thesedishes andcome andhelp you.

− 16 −

Classification Methods for Albatrosses andTubenosesI'm home˜Albatrosses and shearwaters can be distinguished by the position of the nostril.

Albatross species
There is a cylindrical nasal tube on
both sides of the upper beak.
short-tailed albatross
black-footed albatross
Laysan albatross
etcWelcome

Shearwater species
There is a cylindrical nasal tube
on the top of the upper beakback,dearPop!!
other seabird species
There is only a small hole oneither side of the upper beakstreaked shearwater
northern fulmar
storm petrel species
etc.

common gullbrown booby
etc

You've beengone for 6
monthsI'll getdinner readyHow haveright away

you been,son?

Did you
catch a lot oftuna this timetoo?

As usual,this fish
thatPop broughtback isgreat!!

For the benefit of species and people

GLOBAL GUARDIAN TRUST