Bycatch News

Jeffry Fasick of University of Tampa and colleagues show North Atlantic right whales perceive their prey using vision at multiple ocean depths.

A recent article by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation covered proposed measures by the Canadian Government to mitigate deaths to right whales from fishing gear entanglement. In the article, Consortium Director Tim Werner discussed the prospect of ropeless fishing, in which surface lines and buoys might be submerged near the seafloor with crab, lobster, or fish traps to reduce entanglement risk. 

Bycatch Consortium Director Tim Werner on CBC Radio and NPR's "Here and Now" discussing current Consortium research into technologies for preventing large whale entanglements in fishing ropes.

Story featured in the Boston Globe

The Consortium-sponsored research shows that reducing excess rope strength in fishing gear could cut North Atlantic right whale deaths from entanglements by 72 percent.

American Bird Conservancy has launched a website (fisheryandseabird.info) to assist fisheries evaluators and managers to better understand the potential seabirds affected by their fisheries and to reduce bycatch.

ICES Journal of Marine Science has published papers as part of a special section on marine mammal-longline depredation and bycatch

Study is part of a contribution to the Consortium's research into the potential of whale-safe hooks.

The Bycatch Consortium was featured in a June 2014 article in The Guardian, An unusual partnership works to make fishing more sustainable. 

Since the 1970s, fisheries bycatch has been increasingly recognized as a factor responsible for reducing or liminiting the recovery of marine mammal populations in many parts of the world. A new study from the Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction reviews reported marine mammal bycatch from the last two decades.