Ellen Hines Lab

Bycatch is a term to describe the accidental injury or death of a non-target species in fishing gear. This issue is complex and interdisciplinary that burdens both marine megafauna populations and the livelihoods of already marginalized fishermen. Small scale fisheries (SSF) bycatch is often left unreported, causing uncertainties of interaction rates, and risk factors associated with bycatch.  Migratory species along coasts are often at the greatest risk of bycatch accidents. 

 

The Hines Lab supports the use of an open-source GIS model known as the Bycatch Risk Assessment (ByRA) as the platform for examining bycatch factors and producing maps that visualize risk (Hines et al. 2020, Verutes et al. 2020 in review). Previous bycatch assessments have been conducted in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam,  with current research in progress in northern Peru and Thailand for varying marine megafauna. These assessments excel by incorporating local fisher’s experience using participatory mapping, existing data, expert opinion from marine biologists, and scientific literature to provide risk maps and documentation to support bycatch mitigation efforts. 

 

Risk maps will empower both fishermen and local managers with visual information to make decisions based on spatial and temporal overlap, gear type, or implementation of mitigation gear. Bycatch estimates in SSF are often inadequate, yet this technique may offer replicable opportunities for other developing countries to assess risk of bycatch for single or multi-species.

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Reference

Hines, Ellen, Louisa S. Ponnampalam, Chalatip Junchompoo, Cindy Peter, Long Vu, Thien Huynh, Marjolaine Caillat et al. (2020) Getting to the bottom of bycatch: a GIS-based toolbox to assess the risk of marine mammal bycatch. Endangered Species Research 42 (2020): 37-57.