Mitigation measures, fishing practices and technologies to reduce interactions between Endangered, Threatened, and Protected (ETP) species and drifting longline fisheries (LLD) targeting large pelagics: a global scoping review protocol

Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to map and synthesize evidence on mitigation measures, fishing practices, and technologies to reduce Endangered, Threatened, and Protected (ETP) species bycatch in drifting longline fisheries targeting large pelagics, summarize key concepts and findings across disciplines, and identify knowledge gaps to inform policy and research. Introduction: Drifting longline fisheries targeting large pelagic species continue to pose a significant conservation and management challenge for ETP species. Although various types of mitigation measures, fishing practices, and technologies have been developed and utilized globally to reduce ETP bycatch, the scope and nature of field-tested evidence remain diverse and scattered. Inclusion criteria: Studies about regional measures adopted, and fishing practices and technologies tested in the field aimed at reducing ETP species in LLD for large pelagics globally will be included. Both peer-reviewed and grey literature will be examined. Studies published in English, Swedish, Norwegian, Greek, Spanish and Italian language and between the years 1990 and 2024 will be considered. Studies related to other types of fishing gears, those that do not mention ETP species or any type of evidence synthesis will be excluded. Methods: : This scoping review will be guided by the JBI (Joanna Briggs Institute) methodology. Scopus and Web of Science will be searched and complemented with grey literature sources, i.e. organisational websites and a web-based search engine. The team approach will be followed for the conduction of the screening and the data extraction processes. The EndNote software, Covidence software, Microsoft Excel and Flourish will be used for data management, screening, extraction and presentation. The results will be presented graphically and in tabular form.