The Cutting Edge of Bycatch Management: Science, Policy and Engineering, Part 1

Catch of non-target species is one of the most serious challenges facing fisheries managers today.  Bycatch at once reduces efficiency and increases the environmental impact of the fishery on both target and nontarget species, and often to the physical habitat as well. This symposium will showcase ground-breaking work being done to confront bycatch challenges.  We will begin with several papers documenting the scale and scope of the problem.  This will be followed by a session describing current and developing policy strategies for reducing bycatch, including a series of innovative management approaches aimed at using market mechanisms, industry initiatives, and other incentive-based tools.  The symposium will conclude with a series of sessions on conservation engineering.  This will begin with several papers on the biological basis of fishing gear design and will explore commonalities with related bioengineering fields.  Particular attention will be paid to lessons learned from research on fish passage and protection at powerplants and water withdrawals—in many cases the problems and solutions faced by these two lines of research are very similar, and lessons learned in each field may hold valuable information for the other.  This will be followed by sessions describing application of behavior, and biomechanics to improve gear selectivity, and will conclude with a discussion of how technical solutions can be combined with management policies to optimize both fishing and conservation interests.