Bycatch occurs when fishing operations discard unintentionally caught fish or interact with living marine resources such as marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds, protected fish, corals and sponges.
Reducing bycatch is a key part of efforts to maintain sustainable fisheries and conserve and recover protected species.
BREP therefore provides critical funding to key partners to develop technological solutions and changes in fishing practices that decrease the bycatch of fish and protected species or minimise injury to marine life.
“By working side-by-side with fishermen and our partners, this programme has been able to develop smart solutions that keep unwanted, unusable or protected species in the water, while increasing the catch of species fishermen are looking to harvest,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries.
