Abstract
Fisheries bycatch is recognised as a global threat to vulnerable marine megafauna and historical data can contribute to quantify the magnitude of the impact. Here, we present a collection of three datasets generated between 2006 and 2019 by a monitoring programme on marine megafauna bycatch in one of the main Italian fisheries, the northern central Adriatic midwater pair trawl fishery. The three datasets consist of: (i) monitored fishing effort; (ii) bycatch and biological data of dolphins, sea turtles and elasmobranchs; (iii) and dolphin sightings. Some information included in these datasets has already proved to provide a unique opportunity to estimate total incidental capture of species of conservation concern and trends of their relative abundance over time in the northern - central Adriatic Sea. These datasets are expected to be considered by different end users to improve the conservation of species and fishery management approaches to assess the impact of a fishery on species of conservation concern.
Highlights
Background & SummaryThe incidental catch of non-target species during fishing operations is one of the major global threats for marine megafauna, including cetaceans, sea turtles and elasmobranchs[1,2,3,4,5]
Since these species have different life-history traits and distribution, their populations are considered to be vulnerable to direct mortality caused by fishing operations, and fisheries bycatch can contribute to their decline[6,7,8]
Long-term fishery dependent data collected by trained observers provided the most reliable information on the interaction of different vulnerable species with a specific fishing gear in the northern central Adriatic Sea
Summary
The incidental catch of non-target species (bycatch) during fishing operations is one of the major global threats for marine megafauna, including cetaceans, sea turtles and elasmobranchs[1,2,3,4,5]. Species of conservation concern like sea turtles and elasmobranchs were included in the monitoring activity In this framework, long-term fishery dependent data collected by trained observers provided the most reliable information on the interaction of different vulnerable species with a specific fishing gear in the northern central Adriatic Sea. From the data collection, a database was built, and three datasets were extracted and described in the present work. These datasets can be helpful for understanding the ecology of these species and identifying appropriate fishery management measures
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