POPA cetacean, seabird, and sea turtle sightings in the Azores area 1998-2009
POPA: Azores Fisheries Observer Programme

POPA: Azores Fisheries Observer Programme

POPA was launched in 1998 with the main goal of certifying the tuna caught around the Azores as a “dolphin safe product.” This label is attributed by the non-governmental organization Earth Island Institute to catches made without mortality of cetaceans. POPA has built an extensive database with information collected by the observers on board the tuna fishing vessels. This database includes information on tuna fisheries (e.g., location of fishing events, catches, and fishing effort), weather conditions (e.g., sea surface temperature, wind and visibility), live bait fisheries (e.g., location of fishing events, catches, gears used), cetaceans (e.g., occurrences, interaction with fishing events and association with other species), birds and sea turtles (e.g., occurrences). POPA is also responsible for “Friend of the Sea” tuna fishery certification.

In the late 1990’s, it became clear that the tuna industry would be seriously penalized with the absence of a “dolphin safe” certification which instigated new measures from the government and the fisheries sector.

In order to achieve this certification, the Azores Fisheries Observer Programme (POPA) was funded in 1998, ensuring the absence of dolphin mortality or injury in tuna fishery. Since then, fishery and fishing products are certified by the Earth Island Institute, through the results presented by POPA. Besides that, the tuna fishery is also certified as “Friend of the Sea” which means that it is extremely selective, doesn’t harm the surrounding environment and is quite sustainable. It became the first tuna fishery in the world achieving that certification.

The Programme results from an agreement among Regional Administration, Earth Island Institute, the Tuna Canning Industry Association (Pão do Mar), the Fishing Boat Owners Association (APASA) and IMAR – Instituto do Mar - through the University of The Azores Center (IMAR-DOP/UAç), which carries out the programme. Until 2003, the Programme was supported by regional funds. Between 2003 and 2005 it became co-financed by the European Commission through the INTERREG IIIb Programme/ ORPAM project. Since then it has been exclusively supported by the regional government through the Regional Secretary of Fisheries.

Records that did not have time recorded were filled with 00:00:00 and noted in the [NOTES] field. Records that did not have group size recorded were filled with 1 and noted in the [NOTES] field. When an estimated range of animals was sighted, the median value (rounded down) was used as the observed count; when a minimum number of animals was recorded, the minimum number was used as the observed count (i.e., >100 = 100 animals).

Machete, M. and R.S. Santos. 2007. Azores Fisheries Observer Program (POPA): A case study of the multidisciplinary use of observer data. Proceedings of the 5th International Fisheries Observer Conference, Victoria, Canada. McVea, T.A. and Kennelly, S.J. (ed). 114-116

Morato, T., D.A. Varkey, C. Damaso, M. Machete, M. Santos, R. Prieto, R.S. Santos and T.J. Pitcher. 2008. Evidence of a seamount effect on aggregating visitors. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 357: 23-32

Amorim, P., M. Figueiredo, M. Machete, T. Morato, A. Martins and R.S. Santos. 2009. Spatial variability of seabird distribution associated with environmental factors: a case study of marine Important Bird Areas in the Azores. ICES Journal of Marine Science. 66: 29-40

Overview

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downlodable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission unless otherwise noteded below.

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes in dataset provided

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID number (generated by SEAMAP)
obs_date	Observed date
obs_time	Observed time
latitude	Latitude of observation
longitude	Longitude of observation
sp_obs	Species observed
species2	Additional species observed
sp_tsn	Species ITIS TSN
group_est	Estimated number of animals recorded
obs_count	Estimated number of animals
boat_course	Boat course
sight_course	Sightings course
boat_distance
notes	Details for when more than one species was recorded, when time was not recorded, or when count were not recorded (generated by SEAMAP)