Best Practices for the Collection of Longline Data to Facilitate Research and Analysis to Reduce Bycatch of Protected Species: Report of a Workshop at the International Fisheries Observer Conference Sydney, Australia

Workshops focusing specifically on the reduction of sea turtle, marine mammal, and seabird incidental catch (i.e., bycatch) in longline fisheries have recommended the need for standardized data collection procedures employed by fisheries observers onboard commercial longline fishing vessels (Anon. 2003; Donoghue et al. 2003; Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 1998/1999a/1999b; FAO and BirdLife International 2004; Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) 2004; Long and Schroeder 2004). However, these reports lack sufficient detail regarding what these standardized data collections should be.