Historically, the whale shark has been hunted for its meat and liver oil. Whale shark fins are considered inferior in quality and the species is generally not targeted for its fins, although a market for them does exist in Asia due to their massive size (Norman 2005). Despite the fact that there is a paucity […]
June 2025
Entanglements of North Atlanntic right whales in northwestern lobster and crab pot fisheries | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
New England doesn’t show much in the spring on land. For me the arrival of spring is when Critically Endangered North Atlantic right whales appear off of Cape Cod, after hanging out south before migrating northward where most spend their summer. And, alas, we have the news in the attached You Tube link on yet […]
New publication on baleen whale bycatch | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
Reducing Excess Rope Strength in Fishing Gear Could Cut Whale Deaths from Entanglements by 72 percent BOSTON (December 2015) – Along the U.S. East Coast and the Canadian Maritimes, reports of a whale entangled in ropes used in commercial fishing are a near weekly event. When a whale gets entangled in these ropes, the event […]
Development of acoustic deterrent device to mitigate seal fisheries interactions:interim report | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
Preliminary field studies were carried out on a potentially cetacean-friendly acoustic deterrent system for seals (played using underwater loudspeakers). The “smart seal deterrent signal” produces a startle response in seals rather than an aversion to a very loud noise, and is transmitted at a sound level which is not harmful to seals, even at very […]
Reactions of harbor porpoises Phocoena phocoena and herring Clupea harengus to acoustic alarms | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
Harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) avoided an area around a non-lethal, experimental gillnet equipped with a pinger in British Columbia, Canada. In a separate experiment with gillnets in the Baltic Sea, pingers did not affect the catch of targeted herring (Clupea harengus).
Functionality of a full-sized marine mammal exclusion device | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
An excluder device, tested on a trawl net in a flume tank with dummy seals in New Zealand excluded dummy seals from the codend of the net. The modifications were trialed to address bycatch of Hookers sea lions and New Zealand fur seals.
Sustainability in Crisis – Science, Industry and Government Protect Right Whales and Fishing Livelihoods | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
Session Title: Sustainability in Crisis – Science, Industry and Government Protect Right Whales and Fishing Livelihoods Session Description: In recent years, ropes used with fixed fishing gear entangled an unprecedented number of endangered North Atlantic right whales. In response, the MSC suspended its eco-certification for a snow crab fishery in one of the impacted areas, […]
Canada DFO Gear Innovation Summit 2020 | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada is holding a Gear Innovation Summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on February 11-12, 2020 to explore options for making fishing gear safer for whales, and to find innovative ways to prevent, retrieve and recycle lost or discarded fishing gear, or ghost gear. Over 250 harvesters, industry representatives, fishing gear manufacturers, […]
Loggerhead turtle, finfish and shrimp retention studies on four excluder devices (TEDs) | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
Turtle excluder devices reduce sea turtle and non-target finfish (Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulateus), spot (Leiostomus exanthurus), sea catfish (Arius felis), and weakfish (Cynoscion regalis)) bycatch in the Gulf of Mexico prawn trawl fishery. Catch of targeted shrimp varied by location and TED configuration, but there was no significant difference in shrimp catch rates in 3 […]
Hawaii Longline Seabird Mortality Mitigation Project. | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
Dyed bait, alternative offal discards, bird-scaring devices (streamer lines & towed buoys), and night sets reduced seabird (Black-footed (Phobastria nigripes) and Laysan (Phoebastria immutabilis) albatrosses) bycatch in the Hawaiian swordfish and tuna longline fisheries. Alternative offal discards worked by distracting seabirds from hooked bait. Dyed bait did not affect the catch of target and marketable […]
Food color and marine turtle feeding behavior: Can blue bait reduce turtle bycatch in commercial fisheries? | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
Although effective with captive loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and Kemp˙s ridley (Lepiochelys kempii) sea turtles, blue dyed bait is not effective in reducing olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) and green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) bycatch in longline fisheries in Costa Rica.
Industry trials of a modified sea scallop dredge to minimize the catch of sea turtles | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
A chain mat placed on Northwest Atlantic dredge gear eliminated bycatch of sea turtles: loggerhead (Caretta caretta), leatherback (Dermocheles coriacea), and green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas). The chain mat reduced catch by 6.71%.
Design and assessment of two gear modifications to reduce the benthic impact and fuel intensity of prawn trawling in Australia | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
Modified ground gear, known as batwing otter boards, created less disturbance to the seafloor than traditional otter boards in the Australian prawn trawl fishery, decreasing bycatch of benthic squirts and starfish by approximately 85-90%. The target catch of both prawns and scallops decreased by about 10%. Modified ground gear, called soft-brush ground gear, reduced bycatch […]
Reducing bycatch: can acoustic pingers keep Hector's dolphins out of fishing nets? | Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction
Acoustic pingers were tested for their effectiveness to reduce entanglement of Hector’s dolphins in New Zealand gillnets. A remote control device was used to raise either active or passive acoustic pingers near Hector’s dolphins. The dolphins’ movement and distribution was observed from shore.Dolphins avoided the immediate area when pingers were active, but did not leave […]
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