An Annotated Bibliography of Available Literature regarding cetacean Interactions with Tuna Pure Seine Fisheries Outside of the eastern Tropical Pacific

Abstract

A review of currently available literature conceming interactions between tuna purse-seines and dolphins outside the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP) does not indicate any large, sustained, or widespread practice of setting purse seine nets around cetaceans for the purpose of catching tuna in any oceanic area other than in the ETP. While a number of individual reports exist of purse-seine sets made on cetaceans during the process of fishing for tuna in areas other than the ETP, there is no quantitative or even anecdotal indication that large-scale sustained directed fishing on cetaceans during tuna purse-seining occurs anywhere other than in the ETP. However, this lack of information should not be mistaken for conclusive evidence that such large-scale directed efforts do not exist. While it seems unlikely that a large-scale fishing effort would entirely escape notice for long periods of time, the existing available data were collected during at most only a very few percent of the sets made by purse-seiners in any of the fisheries, and thus represent only a very tiny fraction of the total effort being expended worldwide on tuna purseseining....