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Alaska Fisheries Science Center Quarterly Report : January, Febuary, March, 2003
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2003
[PDF-325.70 KB]
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Alternative Title:Understanding Fish Bycatch Discard And Escapee Mortality
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Description:One of the most significant issues affecting marine fisheries management today is the mortality of fish that are discarded after capture or that escape from fishing gear. Fish are released after capture (bycatch) because of harvest restrictions: number, size or sex limits, or incidental catch as nontarget species. Fish escape from gear a sa result of gear modifications causing unwanted fish to be excluded or released prior to landing. Mortality rates of bycatch and escapees are generally unknown and constitute a large source of uncertainty in estimates of overall fishing mortality. Measurements of bycatch amounts and bycatch mortality rates for individual fisheries are necessary for improvements in present management schemes. Total discarded bycatch has been estimated to be approximately one-quarter of the worldwide fisheries catch, while the amount of fish escaping from fishing gear is unknown. Development of quantitative methods to measure discard and escapee mortality rates in the field requires fundamental knowledge of why fish die after being discarded or escaping and how to measure this endpoint under a wide range of realistic fishing conditions. This article summarizes systematic bycatch research over the past 10 years performed in the laboratory of the Fisheries Behavioral Ecology Group of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division.
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Rights Information:Public Domain
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Compliance:Submitted
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