Fishing

Waved Albatross, Espanola Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.
© WWF-Canon / James Frankham

There is growing acceptance by fishing industry leaders of the need to reduce bycatch. Proven solutions do exist, such as modifying fishing gear so that either fewer non-target species are caught or non-target species can escape. In many cases, these modifications are simple and inexpensive, with the best innovations usually coming from fishers themselves.

The bycatch numbers are truly frightening

• Many of the fish and other animals caught in fishing gear are thrown away as unwanted bycatch - amounting to many millions of metric tons of marine life wasted each year.
• Over 300,000 small whales, dolphins, and porpoises die from entanglement in fishing nets each year, making bycatch the single largest cause of mortality for small cetaceans and pushing several species to the verge of extinction.
• Over 250,000 endangered loggerhead turtles and critically endangered leatherback turtles are caught annually on longlines set for tuna, swordfish, and other fish, with thousands more killed in shrimp trawls.
• 26 species of seabird, including 23 albatross species, are threatened with extinction because of longlining, which kills more than 300,000 seabirds each year.
• 89 per cent of hammerhead sharks and 80 per cent of thresher and white sharks have disappeared from the Northeast Atlantic Ocean in the last 18 years, largely due to bycatch.
• Shrimp trawlers catch as many as 35 million juvenile red snappers each year in the Gulf of Mexico, enough to have an impact on the population.
• Billions of corals, sponges, starfish, and other invertebrates are caught as bycatch every year

WWF and its partners are key players in efforts to reduce bycatch. Our aim is to encourage sustainability in the world's fisheries, by working with all those involved - fishers, consumers, the seafood industry, and governments - to provide practical solutions to counteract the enormous environmental harm that bycatch is causing.

Learn more about WWF initiatives to address the bycatch challenge

• Using circle hooks
• Innovative solutions and inspiring designs
• Sustainable Seafood