On September 8th 2021, at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, motion 027 – Reducing impacts of incidental capture on threatened marine species– was adopted.
The motion calls for, among other things, actions to reduce the bycatch of Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) marine species that is resulting in significant pressure to ETP species. The motion results from concerns about the near extinction of the vaquita, driven almost exclusively by bycatch in both legal and illegal fisheries, despite Resolution 6.017 Actions to avert the extinction of the vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus) (Hawai‘i, 2016) and its recommendations intended to avoid this fate, and other species or populations, such as the Antipodean albatross (Diomedea antipodensis) or the Critically Endangered Maui dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori maui), where bycatch is driving rapid and precipitous population declines.
Read more about the motion 027 and the IUCN WCC here.
