Sea Turtle Bycatch Reduction Research and its Link to Fisheries Management

Incidental capture of discarded species in artisanal and commercial fishing operations can result in population-level impacts on threatened and endangered marine resources, most notably sea turtles. In the past decade, NOAA Fisheries has played a pivotal role in domestic and international collaborative research aimed to improve our understanding of these fisheries dynamics. One major goal has been to develop tools for fisheries managers to help improve fishing selectivity for target species with minimal collateral damage, such as discards. It is clear that collaborative findings have enhanced our understanding of sea turtle and fish ecology, biomechanics, and sensory systems. In this overview of our of sea turtle bycatch research, we illustrate some of our successes and discuss our failures in identifying means to improve the ecological sustainability of fisheries, with a focus on conservation of sea turtles. Specifically, we will discuss experiments investigating use of visual cues to deter sea turtles from coastal gillnets and implications for future implementation of findings. We will also trace the evolution of circle hooks as a successful bycatch reduction tool in pelagic fisheries. We will discuss links between research on fisheries bycatch mitigation and federal and international regulations aimed to protect non-target species.