IMIS

Observers are only present on some fishing vessels. To estimate total captures in a fishery, it is necessary to use statistical methods to extrapolate from the observed fishing to the unobserved fishing. The total observable captures are an estimate of the captures that would have been reported, had observers been present on all fishing vessels. There may be additional mortalities (such as birds that are struck by fishing gear but not brought on board the vessel) that are not recorded by observers. These are referred to as ‘cryptic mortalities’ and are not included in the estimates of total captures, nor is there any evaluation of potential survival of seabirds recorded as captured but subsequently released alive. The methods used for the estimation follow those described in technical reports on bycatch estimation for seabirds (Abraham and Thompson 2011a, Abraham et al. 2013), and marine mammals (Thompson et al. 2013).