Mincing offal to reduce the attendance of seabirds at trawlers

Published:  

2010
This report summarises trials of mincing as an offal management technique to reduce attendance of seabirds at the vessel, on two offshore trawl trips in 2008.

Summary

Results are presented from a repeat of previous mincing experiments, conducted during two trips, primarily targeting hoki, on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand in early 2008. As in the earlier experiments, the numbers of seabirds behind the vessel were counted, and the response of these counts to different treatments of the waste stream was determined. The machinery used for macerating the offal was developed specifically for the vessel used, and the protocol was modified so that more data could be collected. This experiment continues a series of work aimed at reducing the bycatch of seabirds in New Zealand fisheries, including studies of the efficacy of mitigation and previous trials of different offal management strategies.

Publication information

Author: Edward R. Abraham

Unpublished report prepared by Dragonfly for the Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand.

Contact

Conservation Services Programme
Department of Conservation
PO Box 10-420
Wellington 6143

Email: csp@doc.govt.nz

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