Report of the PSARC Invertebrate Subcommittee Meeting, November 28-29, 2000

The first two papers dealt specifically with the bycatch of halibut and eulachon, while the focus of the current paper is to provide information on the bycatch of other non-target species in the shrimp-by-trawl fishery. [...] The reviewer supported the recommendations to increase the program and focus on potentially important species, but was surprised that no recommendations arose from the analyses carried out in the paper, particularly in instances where bycatch exceeded target catch levels or when bycatch levels represented a significant proportion of the TAC allocated to directed fisheries on the same species. [...] There was discussion of the amount of detail in the Working Paper, and whether more details should be included to design a more rigorous bycatch sampling program, whether selected areas should be chosen on which to focus, and the extent to which the objectives of the sampling program should be modified to observe the influence of Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRD’s) use of which became mandatory in 2 [...] In this context, the Subcommittee agreed that the recommendations in the paper (calling for a more detailed and directed bycatch sampling program) are appropriate, and that the objectives for the sampling program should be re-evaluated to include our present understanding of the issues and concerns (e.g. [...] Perhaps the answer is the outcome of the 1999 Abalone Workshop, therefore, the paper should explain how the Workshop led to the commitment to hatchery work.