Japan's National Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries, March 2009. Country/Territory Japan Document type Date 2016 Source FAO, FAOLEX Subject Fisheries, Wild species & ecosystems Keyword Bycatch Marine fisheries Fishery management and conservation Fishing gear/fishing method Foreign fishing Protection of environment Protection of species Policy/planning Sustainable use Wild fauna Birds Geographical area Asia, ASIA AND THE PACIFIC, Eastern Asia, North Pacific, North-West Pacific Abstract Japan adopted an effective and practicable National Plan of Action NPOA-Seabirds in 2001 after analyzing the impact of Japanese longline fishing on seabirds objectively and scientifically, and taking into account the FAO International Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries (IPOA-Seabirds) from the viewpoint to promote international cooperation toward reducing incidental catch of seabirds. In developing NPOA-Seabirds in 2001, Japan set a goal of action aiming to achieve full implementation of mitigation measures to reduce incidental catch of seabirds by 2015. In addition, whenever new mitigation measures were introduced by regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) for reducing incidental catch of seabirds, it promptly introduced those mitigation measures through the revisions of the ministry ordinance. As a result, all the mitigation measures agreed by respective RFMOs have been introduced in Japan. Full text Chinese Website www.fao.org