Untangling the Net: Tackling Bird Bycatch in Baltic Gillnet Fisheries

Summary

An estimated 400,000 seabirds are killed by gillnet fisheries worldwide each year, with approximately 76,000 thought to be killed in Baltic gillnet fisheries alone. This toll includes the capture of globally threatened species, including the Velvet Scoter and the Long-tailed Duck. However, the data is not confirmed since the bycatch is rarely reported, and it is also difficult for fishermen to do anything to reduce bycatch since the technology and knowledge is underdeveloped. Bycatch impacts the ecosystem directly, but can also destroy fishermen’s nets.

This project aimed to further understand the bycatch problem in Lithuanian waters and the Russian part of the Curonian Lagoon, to develop and test experimental methods to reduce bird bycatch in nets. It also sought to minimize the economic impacts on fishermen, along with raising the awareness of decision makers for the need to devise suitable management strategies. Data was collected in order to derive estimates of the level and nature of seabird bycatch in these fisheries. Also, technical mitigation measures were developed and tested, in collaboration with fishers and drawing on the expertise of sensory ecologists and fisheries engineers, to assess their effectiveness in reducing the occurrence of seabird bycatch. By testing methods and developing prototypes to reduce bycatch the level of knowledge is increased, and recommendations for effective measures were reported. The investigation into quantifying bycatch in the Curonian Lagoon led to changes in fishermen´s logbooks to record also bycatch and has been given recognition up on EU level.