Our oceans are full of sophisticated and perfect traps: nets, hooks, fishing lines. Designed to capture animals destined for our tables, they often capture other wild animals as well.
This accidental capture is known as bycatch and causes death each year. of millions of marine animalsincluding whales, dolphins, sharks, turtles and seabirds. Nets and gear can suffocate animals or cause fatal injuries; Even when animals are thrown into the sea, they often die. Bycatch is also a dilemma for fishermen: Entangled creatures can destroy equipment, costing time, money and the reputation of fisheries.
Over decades, conservationists, researchers and fishermen have developed ways to minimize various types of bycatch in different fish populations around the world. But putting these solutions into practice is often challenging, and many mitigation strategies are never widely implemented.
Fishing gear that entangles dolphins, porpoises and whales is a major threat to the animals. Here, gear trails of the North Atlantic right whale called Snowcone (known individual #3560) swimming with her calf in waters off Georgia.
Credit: Georgia Department of Natural Resources, NOAA Permit #20556
Fishing gear that entangles dolphins, porpoises and whales is a major threat to the animals. Here, gear trails of the North Atlantic right whale called Snowcone (known individual #3560) swimming with her calf in waters off Georgia.
Credit: Georgia Department of Natural Resources, NOAA Permit #20556
However, some approaches now have a proven success rate and more may be on the horizon. Recent research has explored networks equipped with lights; Even low-tech tricks, like equipping gear with plastic water bottles, promise to reduce some types of bycatch while still being practical for anglers.
Despite the challenges, researchers are hopeful. “I don’t know of many conservation problems where industry, conservationists, consumers, fishermen and resource users all want the same thing,” says marine biologist Matthew Savoca, a research scientist at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station. “All stakeholders want less bycatch.”
Keep turtles away
The problem of bycatch has always existed. “It’s a conflict intrinsic to the whole idea of fishing,” says marine scientist Nancy Knowlton, a marine biologist emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “If you have something that’s designed to catch animals, you’re almost always going to end up catching some things you didn’t intend to catch.”
