June 14, 2024 — The Council for the Conservation of Migratory Birds has presented NOAA Fisheries with the 2023 Presidential Migratory Bird Federal Stewardship Award. Each year, the Council recognizes projects or actions with a focus on migratory birds that are conducted by or in partnership with a federal agency. NOAA Fisheries won the 2023 award for its project Seabird Conservation Through Fishery-Based Data: The NOAA Fisheries-Oikonos Seabird Bycatch Project. The project aims to maximize the scientific value of birds taken incidentally in the northeastern Pacific Ocean.
While NOAA Fisheries works diligently to minimize and mitigate bycatch in federally managed fisheries, seabirds are sometimes incidentally taken. Since 2007, NOAA Fisheries has been collaborating with Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge to gather data from seabird bycatch by conducting necropsies on carcasses instead of disposing of them. At-sea observers collect carcasses and send them to the researchers at Oikonos for data collection. Participating programs include: