NOAA Fisheries staff Tom Good (Northwest Fisheries Science Center) and Steve Copps (West Coast Region), together with our partners at Washington Sea Grant and Oregon State University, were recently awarded the 2015 Presidential Migratory Bird Stewardship Award. The award recognizes the team's role in a project to prevent migratory seabird mortality in the U.S. West Coast Groundfish longline fishery.
Tom authored the risk assessment for short tailed albatross that, along with other information, helped lead managers to propose seabird mitigation regulations. Tom had also received a Cooperative Research Program grant to help fund Washington Sea Grant's research on characterizing the West Coast longline fisheries with respect to their fishing gear performance, sink rates, and its potential effect on seabird interactions.
As a result of the team's efforts, special devices called streamer lines were designed to keep endangered short-tailed albatross from getting caught in their fishing gear. For more about the winning project, please see: http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/stories/2014/10_09102014_saving_seabirds_bait.html
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