The Ecosystem and Bycatch Program provides scientific support for implementing the broad goals of the Antigua Convention, in particular for the IATTC to “adopt, as necessary, conservation and management measures and recommendations for species belonging to the same ecosystem and that are affected by fishing for, or dependent on or associated with, the fish stocks covered by the Convention”. Two main duties are assigned to the program:

1. To assess and mitigate the ecological impacts of the tuna fisheries on species and habitats. This includes the following activities:
   1. Develop analytical tools to identify and prioritize species at risk for data collection, research and management.
   2. Conduct Ecological Risk Assessments (ERAs) of EPO fisheries to identify and prioritize species at risk.
   3. Conduct spatiotemporal analyses to identify areas of high bycatch/catch ratios for potential use in spatial management (static or dynamic closures), and investigate alternative tools for bycatch mitigation.
   4. In collaboration with the fishing industry, conduct scientific experiments to:
      1. identify gear technology that will reduce bycatches and mortality of prioritized species;
      2. develop best practices for the release of prioritized bycatch species;
      3. develop best practices for mitigating the impacts of fishing on habitats in the EPO.
   5. Conducting workshops for vessel crews to promote the reduction of impacts of the fishery on non-target species and compliance with IATTC resolutions.
   6. In coordination with the Stock Assessment Program, improve our understanding of the effects of the operational characteristics of the fishery on fishing mortality, stock assessment, and management advice.
   7. Support for capacity-building with regard to bycatch mitigation, and development of data collection programs for artisanal fisheries of coastal States (e.g. shark fisheries).
2. To improve our understanding of the EPO ecosystem as well as the interactions among the environment, climate and fisheries:
   1. Conduct trophodynamic studies for defining key assumptions in EPO ecosystem models. This includes sampling and analysis of diets and tissues required to understand food-web dynamics, and analysis of biological, ecological and fisheries data to facilitate ecological risk assessment and ecosystem modeling.
   2. Ecosystem modeling studies. This includes improving analytical tools to evaluate anthropogenic and climate impacts of the EPO ecosystem.
   3. Conduct spatiotemporal analyses to better understand the effect of key environmental drivers on the short-term as well as long-term (regime shift) fluctuations of abundance of tunas and prioritized bycatch species.

• Scientific research
   

• Stock assessment
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• Ecosystem & Bycatch
   
• Biology
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  • Early-life History
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  • Life-History & Behavior
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  • Achotines Lab., Panama
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• Data Collection & Database
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  • Database
     
  • IT support
     

A.3.b	Develop databases of biological and fisheries parameters to support Ecological Risk Assessment and ecosystem models		Jan 2018-Dec 2023
B.1.a	Improving smart species identification tools		Jan 2022-Dec 2023
C.2.b	Pilot study of electronic monitoring (EM) of the activities and catches of longline vessels		Mar 2021-Apr 2023
C.4.a	Improving data collection for Central American shark fisheries		Jan 2018-Dec 2019
D.1.a	Exploring technologies for remote identification of FADs		Mar 2022-Mar 2023
D.2.a	Pilot study of electronic monitoring (EM) of the activities and catches of purse-seine vessels	Completed	Jan 2018-Mar 2021
F.3.a	Feasibility study to develop a sampling program for updating morphometric relationships and collecting biological samples for priority species in EPO tuna fisheries: Phase 1		Jul 2022-Jul 2024
H.6.c	Participate in south Pacific albacore assessment	Ongoing
J.1.a	Temporal trends and variability in the spatial distribution of tropical tuna purse-seine fishing		May 2022-May 2023
J.2.b	Identifying operational characteristics associated with mobulid bycatch in the eastern Pacific Ocean		May 2022-May 2023

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• Hilborn, R., Agostini, V.N., Chaloupka, M., Garcia, S.M., Gerber, L.R., Gilman, E., Hanich, Q., Himes-Cornell, A., Hobday, A.J., Itano, D., Kaiser, M.J., Murua, H., Ovando, D., Pilling, G.M., Rice, J.C., Sharma, R., Schaefer, K.M., Severance, C.J., Taylor, N.G., Fitchett, M. 2021. Area-based management of blue water fisheries: Current knowledge and research needs. Fish and Fisheries 10.1111/faf.12629