February 26, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recently released their latest national report on bycatch taken in hundreds of fisheries around the country in 2014 and 2015. Bycatch amounts were almost identical each year with a slight increase in 2015.
In 2014, the commercial fisheries included in the national bycatch report landed approximately 6,780.27 M lb and discarded an estimated 837.87 M lb. The fisheries included in this report for 2015 landed approximately 6,538.20 M lb and discarded an estimated 814.53 M lb.
Since 2011, NMFS has published an NBR and three online updates. These reports provide information on overall bycatch and, in addition to stock assessments or other data on individual stocks and fisheries.
The most recent report, called NBR Update 3, documents many improvements in bycatch monitoring and reductions in bycatch. For example, the Greater Atlantic section includes 2014 and 2015 fish bycatch estimates for 34 and 35 commercial fisheries, respectively, compared with 24 fisheries for 2013 in the previous NBR Update. In addition, for 2014 and 2015, the list of fish species considered for estimation by the Greater Atlantic Region was expanded to well over 140 species for 2014 and 151 species for 2015, compared to 34 species for 2013.
The Southeast Region section includes first-time fish bycatch estimates (in the NBR) for the Southeastern Atlantic Shrimp Trawl Fishery and bycatch numbers for the Southeastern Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Shark Bottom Longline Research Fishery, which has 100% observer coverage. The Alaska Region section includes bycatch estimates for 10 crab fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. These fisheries are under joint federal and state management.
In the West Coast Region, the California Drift Gillnet Fishery for swordfish and thresher shark, which reports bycatch in terms of numbers, experienced bycatch decreases from 1,647 individuals in 2014 to 649 individuals in 2015. This reduction was due partly to lower fishing effort in 2015.
For purposes of the National Bycatch Report (NBR), NMFS defines bycatch as discarded catch of any living marine resource plus unobserved mortality1 due to a direct encounter with fishing gear. This definition is more expansive than the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) definition of bycatch because the purpose of the NBR is to provide estimates of fishery interactions with marine mammals and seabirds as well as fish bycatch.
The full report may be seen here.
This story was originally published by SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.