Review of the implementation of the EU regulation on the incidental catches of cetaceans (STECF-19-07)

The report of the EWG 19-07 represents a review and commentary on issues associated with current legislation and the work undertaken to provide cetacean population estimates. It also considers incidental bycatch estimates and the data and methods to provide such estimates, as well as bycatch mitigation methods. It draws heavily on the work of the ICES WGBYC, the ICES WKPETSAMP and the results of the FishPi project and on an extensive list 9 of published papers and reports. The EWG report focuses on cetaceans, but other Protected, Endangered and Threatened (PET) like seabirds or turtles are also mentioned. While much excellent work has been carried out on these issues and is well-summarised in the EWG report, significant knowledge gaps remain, notably in reliable cetacean population estimates for many species and sea areas and reliable estimates of incidental catches of cetaceans resulting from inadequate monitoring. Consequently, to provide a comprehensive, informative and in relation to bycatch thresholds, quantitative response to each of the terms of reference has proven to be a challenge for STECF. Nevertheless, based on the report of the EWG 19-07, STECF has attempted to draw out the important issues identified and where possible, proposed a follow-up action. Such issues and proposals represent a synthesis of the conclusions and recommendations contained in the EWG 19-07 report and are given below in relation to each of the requests given in the terms of reference to the Expert Group.