Researcher from the Fisheries Development Institute presents work at a conference on marine mammals in Australia
November 27th, 2024
The 25th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Culture and Conservation: Fishing for Change was held in Perth, Australia, from November 9 to 15. This event is the most important in the field and brought together more than 1,400 researchers from 73 countries. Among the various topics discussed at the conference, the problem of the interaction of marine mammals with fisheries around the world was one of the most relevant.
Senior researcher from IFOP, Marcelo San Martín, participated in the event and presented the work developed in conjunction with researchers from the Tecpes group at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, entitled “Assessing the effectiveness of the sea lion exclusion device to reduce the incidental catch in the Chilean hake trawl fishery.” The work, which evaluated the performance and operation of the sea lion exclusion device (grid with escape window) in one of the trawl fisheries in the south-central area of Chile, was of particular interest to the attendees at the conference, especially because it was a practical work and showed, with scientific information, the efficiency of this type of device to reduce the incidental capture of sea lions during fishing activity.
Marcelo San Martín pointed out that, “these types of events are extremely important to share the experiences that are developed worldwide with the objective of reducing the impact that fishing activity causes on marine mammals, as well as those aimed at reducing the effects that this interaction produces on fishing.” Currently, Chile maintains a permanent monitoring program of the incidental captures of this group of animals in the main fisheries by IFOP, highlighting the implementation of regulatory measures to reduce the problem by the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture. San Martín also commented, “This issue has become increasingly interesting, mainly considering the global reduction of marine resources (food for marine mammals) and the effects that climate change has caused in marine ecosystems, a situation that concerns and occupies us within IFOP.”
The researcher’s participation was made possible thanks to the support provided by The Nature Conservancy, within the framework of a collaboration agreement that it maintains with IFOP.
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