Coordinated Development and Implementation of Best Practice in Bycatch Reduction in the North Atlantic Region’

General introduction

How can unintentional catches of endangered marine fish species in the Northeast Atlantic, Baltic and Mediterranean be reduced through efficient cooperation with fishermen, authorities and other stakeholders? These unintentional catches must be reduced to comply with a number of EU directives and regulations, such as the Habitat Directive and the Technical Measures Regulation. The researchers aim to improve, develop and evaluate methods to reduce the risk of unintended bycatch. They also support associated tools and processes. The ultimate goal is to implement these approaches, if successful, in the long term.

Research approach

The research approach relies on 9 principles and tasks:

1. Using a flexible, multi-faceted and collaborative approach to develop and test effective measures that reduce unintentional catch of important marine animals, such as marine mammals, sharks, rays, birds and sea turtles. This focuses particularly on fishing methods with a high risk of bycatch, including both stationary and towed gears.

2. Building on previous results with new case studies within the project.

3. Creating a "safe environment" to exchange information and develop practical solutions for all stakeholders.

4. Develop a long-term stakeholder engagement strategy and communication strategy.

5. A focus on socio-economic impacts, such as addressing potential negative impacts on the fishing industry and individual fishermen, and promoting sustainable practices.

6. Working with national and regional fisheries management authorities and other relevant bodies such as FAO to ensure that recommended bycatch reduction measures are implemented.

7. Ensuring long-term funding to address financial constraints and opportunities related to monitoring and incidental bycatch reduction.

8. Utilize different approaches to bycatch monitoring, such as the use of Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) and mobile apps, to obtain the most accurate fishery data.

9. Building on best practices (e.g., in OSPAR, HELCOM, ICES, ASCOBANS, IWC) to develop methods for assessing the impact of incidental bycatch on conservation in both data-rich and data-poor situations.

Relevance/Valorisation

There is momentum for collaborative action to solve the problem of incidental bycatch of priority ETP species. In recent years, there have been several developments that demonstrate the need for coordinated international efforts to tackle this problem. This was also emphasized by European Commissioner for Environment - Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius, when he sent a letter to all European Fisheries and Environment Ministers on 25 February 2020 calling for action on the issue of priority ETP species bycatch, particularly highlighting the common dolphin in the Bay of Biscay and the harbor porpoise in the Baltic Sea. The letter followed a complaint filed in July 2019 by 27 NGOs at the European Commission against 15 European Member States, arguing that they, among others, “have systematically failed to implement conservation measures that ensure that bycatch does not have a significant impact on these species.” CIBBRiNA will work jointly with fishers, scientists, fisheries and environment ministries of thirteen European countries11 in the North-East Atlantic, Baltic and Mediterranean Sea to improve knowledge on bycatches in different fisheries, to minimise bycatch of priority ETP species and to work towards science-based assessments of the impacts of bycatches on their populations.