Keith,

I thought that you should be aware of this working group, and that this
might be a resource for you to use and/or contribute to. The incidence
of bird bycatch in our fisheries, commercial and recreational, is
certainly inadequately studied. Such studies are expensive and
labor-intensive, and without the availability of a common resource, such
as Glen is organizing within this working group, our agency will be less
able to respond to resource needs.

I am cc-ing the birding and seabird groups, in hopes that other seabird
folks can also contribute to this endeavor.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 04:23:05 -0500
From: FISH1IFR at aol.com
To: birdbycatch at pond.net
Subject: Gathering information

TO: Seabird Bycatch Working Group
FROM: Glen Spain (Project Manager)
DATE: 1/22/96
RE: Questions on gathering information
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Responses to staff should go to: birdbycatch-request at pond.net
Posting to the entire group should go to: birdbycatch at pond.net
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Dear friends:

The first of the four points in our Mission Statement is the following:

1) Assess the problem, gather all the scientific data on seabird bycatch
(now widely scattered) into one readily available form easily accessible

by computer modem, and to review and critique the current status of all
relevant research;

Among researchers in the field of seabird bycatch problems, a nearly
constant complaint we have heard is that the information available on
seabird bycatch is so widely scattered and difficult to organize that it is
almost impossible to gather all the current information together into a
coherent body that would allow an assessment of what has been done in the
past and what needs to be done in the future. Much of the information (if
published at all) is apparently scattered among many journals or appears
only in agency working papers. Obviously it is difficult, with this sort of
situation, to determine just what the "state of the art" is on current
research, and difficult to avoid "reinventing the wheel" by having to redo
research or backtrack through studies that have already been done but of
which one was unaware.

Thus, one of the primary tasks of this Working Group should be to gather
together in one place (here, on the Internet) an index of whatever studies
have already been done, create a directory of agencies and agency
researchers actually doing current studies, and use our Web pages for
reports on on-going research. In other words, to create an electronic
"Journal of Seabird Bycatch," complete with a research library for the use
of anyone who needs access to this specialized information. While we are
on somewhat uncharted ground, there are several existing examples of how
this might be done, such as the WWW "Virtual Library" which is growing
all over the Web, with specific computer systems maintaining their
components of the whole library. Other examples of searchable,
downloadable databases are maintained by various governemental agencies
in the US, some of them indexing thousands of titles of reports and journal
articles from all over the world.

Your hardworking and enthusiastic staff for this Project (Glen Spain and
Brad Warren) are not experts in this field. Thus in order to kick this
effort
off, we need the following information from those of you who are:

I. A LIST OF JOURNALS IN WHICH SEABIRD BYCATCH
RESEARCH REPORTS ARE GENERALLY PUBLISHED. We need to
compile a list of ornithological journals and scientific publications which
publish this type of research, and subscribe to most of them, so that we can
at least stay current with what is being published from this point onward.
Don't worry about duplication -- we would rather duplicate and sort it out
afterward than miss any. Specifically we need the name of the journal,
mailing address/phone for subscriptions or contacts, and any other
information available about these sources or their usefulness that you may
have.

2. A LIST OF GOVERNMENTAL PUBLICATIONS ON SEABIRD
BYCATCH ISSUES OR RESEARCH. Even at this early stage, the
Working Group contains scientists from many countries. Those of you
outside the US are in a much better position to track down the names and
titles of publications in your own countries than we are. For us here in the
US many of these sources are almost impossible to locate or acquire. We
need your help to identify those publications and (if possible) to send us a
copy for our archives.

3. A LIST OF WHO IS WHOM IN THIS RESEARCH FIELD. Who is
doing this type of research right now, and what studies are being done?
The best way I can think of to manage this is to ask each of the scientists
who are participating on the panel (many of whom are actually doing this
type of research now) to answer the following questions: (a) What seabird
bycatch research are you doing now or have recently completed; (b) What
species are you dealing with; (c) What fishing gear types are you looking at
in terms of their impact (long-line, gill-nets, trawl gear, trollers,
sportfishing gear, etc.); (d) The name/address/phone/fax of the principal
contacts for these research studies; (e) Your expected completion dates
and/or publication dates.

In addition, if you know of any other similar seabird bycatch research also
being done anywhere else, whom to contact for more information about
those other studies. If you have published papers available in reprint,
PLEASE SEND US COPIES FOR OUR ARCHIVES. We will inevitably
depend heavily on what we are provided by others.

When you first contacted us to sign up for this group some of you also sent
a brief description of some of your ongoing work on these issues. These
accounts were tantalizing. I need more of these (and in much more detail),
and I am sure others on the Network would also find them interesting --
and may even be helpful to your project once they know about it. I would
look at the above "assignment" as a way to spread the word on what you
are doing and to let us know if you have any needs that perhaps others
have the information for. The side benefit is that we will be able to
compile
an index of ongoing research projects that can help fill in some of the
information gaps that plague all of us.

4. FINALLY, YOUR THOUGHTS, IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR
HOW WE MIGHT COMPILE THIS INFORMATION, INDEX IT FOR
MAXIMUM USEFULNESS AND MAKE IT AVAILABLE. As I
indicated, much of what we are planning to do with this Working Group
has never been done before (particularly on the Internet). Virtually nothing
is fixed in stone, and we are totally open to suggestions on how to make
this project real and meaningful. Ultimately our goal is to help solve these
problems. However, there may be dozens of ways to actually get there
from here. This is also a laboratory for experiment. The prospects are
very exciting.

Thanks for your help.
--
Glen Spain







(Project
Manager)