Bycatch 167

Simôes-Lopes, P. C., and Ximenez, A. (1989). Phocoena spinipinnis Marine mammals generally reproduce slowly, and their populations
Burmeister 1865, na costa sul do Brasil (Cetacea-Phocoenidae). are not able to withstand much additional non-natural mortality. The
Biotemas 2, 83–89. removal of just 1% of the population per year may be more than a
Torres, P., Oporto, J. A., Brieva, L., and Escare, L. (1992). marine mammal population can sustain in the longer term. Bycatch
Gastrointestinal helminths of the cetaceans Phocoena spinipinnis is recognized as one of the most important sources of anthropogenic
(Burmeister, 1865) and Cephalorhynchus eutropia (Gray, 1846) from
mortality among many species of marine mammals (Reeves et al.,
the southern coast of Chile. J. Wildl. Dis. 28, 313–315.
Van Waerebeek, K., and Reyes, J. C. (1990). Catch of small cetaceans at 2003; Lewison et al., 2004). For this reason, many nations now legis- B
Pucusana port, central Peru, during 1987. Biol. Cons. 51, 15–22. late to protect marine mammal populations from deliberate or acci­
Van Waerebeek, K., Santillán, L., and Reyes, J. C. (2002). An unusually dental exploitation, and there are several international agreements
large aggregation of Burmeister’s porpoise Phocoena spinipinnis off with the same aim.
Peru, with a review of sightings from the eastern South Pacific. Not. Legislation to protect marine mammals from excessive mortal­
Men. Mus. Nac. Hist. Nat., Chile 350, 12–17. ity has resulted from a variety of case studies that have uncovered
Würsig, M., Würsig, B., and Mermoz, J. F. (1977). Desplazamientos, unsustainable levels of incidental capture. Several of these cases
comportamiento general y un varamiento de la marsopa espinosa, have become widely publicized and have generated considerable
Phocoena spinipinnis, en el Golfo de San José (Chubut, Argentina). public attention and debate.
Physis 36, 71–79.
Yáñez, J., Canto, J., and Reyes, J. C. (1994). Cráneo fósil de Phocoena
spinipinnis (Cetacea: Phocoenidae) hallado en Chile. Not. Men. Mus.
Nac. Hist. Nat., Chile 324, 25–29. I. Examples
A. Eastern Tropical Pacific Tuna Purse
Seine Fishery
The first interaction to be recognized as a serious concern for the
conservation of marine mammals was the large-scale capture of pelagic
delphinids, mainly Stenella and Delphinus species in the United States
Bycatch tuna purse seine fishery of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP).
Tuna boat skippers learned in the 1950s that they could catch large tuna
SIMON NORTHRIDGE by herding dolphin schools with speedboats and then surrounding
them with long, deep, purse seine nets. Fishermen were exploiting

M
arine mammals sometimes get caught up and killed in fish­ the curious fact that in the ETP and some other places, large yellowfin
ing operations. In many cases these deaths are entirely unin­ tuna Thunnus albacares will school under and follow dolphin schools.
tended by the fishermen concerned and are incidental to the Once the dolphins and associated tuna are surrounded, the nets can
main fishing operation. They are therefore often referred to as inciden­ be “pursed,” whereby the bottom end of the net is closed off, thereby
tal catches. More often they are referred to as “bycatches,” although catching the tuna. At this point the dolphins can still surface to breathe
this term is also used to described the capture of some species that, within the encircled net and could escape by jumping over the floats.
while not the main target of a fishery, still have some value and may Pelagic delphinids, however, seem to find it difficult to escape from
therefore be landed. Incidental catches are generally unwanted and such an enclosed situation, and many became trapped and died under
discarded. The term bycatch is now commonly used to describe any folds of the surrounding purse seine.
sort of unintended capture. This fishing technique was begun in the 1950s, but was not rec­
Bycatches of marine mammals have probably occurred for as long ognized as a potential conservation problem until the early 1970s,
as people have been putting nets and lines into the water. Most spe­ when a monitoring program was established. During much of the
cies of marine mammal that occur in places that are heavily fished 1960s and up to 1972, annual mortalities are thought to have ranged
have been recorded caught in at least one type of fishing gear. Most between 200,000 and 500,000. Thereafter a variety of efforts were
types of fishing gear have been reported to ensnare marine mammals made to reduce the kill, but tens of thousands of dolphins were still
at one time or another. Some captures seem to defy reason. Large being killed annually throughout most of the 1980s. Pantropical spot­
whales, for example, may become caught in a single lobster pot line, ted dolphins, Stenella attenuata, were the most frequently killed spe­
and porpoises can get caught in simple fish traps that they are able cies, and numbers of this species in the ETP were more than halved
to find their way into, but not out of. One estimate of global bycatch over the 1960s and 1970s. Populations of other species were also
levels suggests that over 300,000 marine mammals per year are killed severely impacted.
in fishing operations globally (Read et al., 2006). Largely as a result of public pressure, and the introduction of
In the past, and indeed in many parts of the world today, bycatch “dolphin safe” tuna retailing, this practice has now been greatly
of marine mammals might be treated as a useful bonus and landed reduced. New techniques have been devised by the skippers to
for consumption. During the latter half of the twentieth century, ensure that a very high proportion of the dolphins used in this way
however, fishing technology has changed faster and more completely to catch tuna are encouraged to escape from the nets before the
than ever before, which has led to a reappraisal of the issues sur­ fish are removed. Under a training and monitoring scheme run by
rounding bycatch and incidental catch. Nets have become larger and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, dolphin mortal­
stronger, numerous new fishing techniques have been devised, and ity had been reduced to less than 1500 animals per year by 2004
fishing intensity throughout the world has increased dramatically, (Anon, 2004). Efforts continue to reduce these figures further still.
nearly trebling marine fishery landings over a period of just 40 years. However, despite the great reduction in the kills, the populations
Such developments have had unintended negative impacts on non­ have not shown strong signs of recovery; effects of continued large-
target species, including marine mammals, so that bycatches have scale chase and capture may contribute to this failure to rebound
now become a critical issue for some marine mammal populations. (Gerrodette and Forcada, 2005; Wade et al., 2007).
 168 Bycatch

Throughout the world, since the discovery of the effect of the

B. The Baiji
The baiji (L. vexillifer), otherwise known as the Chinese river
dolphin, used to inhabit the middle and lower parts of the Yangtze
River system in China. The total population size was thought to have
numbered a few hundred in the 1980s, and numerous publications
warned of its imminent demise throughout the 1990s and into the
present millennium. The major source of mortality for this species
was snagging in “rolling hook” fishing lines. These are lines equipped Figure 1 A harbor porpoise entangled in a cod gillnet in the North
with many closely set, sharp, unbaited hooks designed to snag fish Sea, one of many hundreds dying this way every year in European
foraging on the river bed in the same areas as the Baiji. In one study, gillnet fisheries. Photo by Nigel Godden/Sea Mammal Research Unit.
45% of all known Baiji deaths were attributed to snagging in rolling
hooks. A recent intensive survey found no remaining baiji and con­
cluded that the species was extinct, probably due to unsustainable
bycatch in local fisheries (Turvey et al., 2007). the Baltic Sea, harbor porpoises have all but disappeared. Although
the cause of this disappearance is not known for sure, the use of gill-
nets in the Baltic has been intense in recent decades, and it is widely
C. The Vaquita believed that bycatch has played a significant role.
The vaquita (P. sinus) is a species of porpoise restricted to the Throughout the world, small inshore species such as the har­
upper part of the Gulf of California in Mexico. Population studies bor porpoise are known to be victims of bycatch in fishing opera­
suggest that less than 600 animals remained by 1997, that numbers tions, but the level of such bycatches and the likely impacts remain
are declining, and that the species is in critical danger of extinction. unknown. Monitoring bycatch rates and estimating population sizes
Again, the major source of mortality is incidental catches in fishing are both very expensive. A significant issue in this regard is that
operations, in this case gill nets for fish and shrimps. Gill nets are there does not need to be a very large number of bycatch kills for
simple long panels of netting that are set to stand vertically in the the total effect to be significant. When a marine mammal popula­
water with floats along their top and a weighted rope on their bot­ tion numbers in the hundreds or even the tens of thousands, a few
tom. Depending on the amount of weight added, they either sit on individuals to a few hundred individuals taken per year may be
the seabed floating upward or they float at the surface hanging down. enough to generate a population decline. Furthermore, even when
They are left to ensnare fish that happen to swim into them, but also the marine mammal population is much larger, if the fishery is also
catch marine mammals by entangling them. Annual vaquita mortal­ large, significant bycatches can occur while still remaining unknown.
ity in gill net fisheries is estimated at around 40–80 per year, which is Generally, bycatches are rare events. Typically in European and
clearly an unsustainable level of mortality given the size of the pop­ North American coastal gillnet fisheries, a capture event only occurs
ulation. Progress towards reducing entanglement has been slow in in one or two out of every hundred fishing operations. Such low lev­
spite of efforts to phase out gill nets in the vaquita’s core range, and els may remain unnoticed, although the aggregate effect over a large
the development of schemes involving compensation for fishermen number of vessels and operations may be significant. Such low levels
(Rojas-Bracho et al., 2006). of capture also make monitoring more difficult.
Although most attention worldwide has focused on the potential
conservation issues that incidental catches of marine mammals raise,
II. Causes for Concern animal welfare considerations are also a concern. Whereas some
Although these examples are perhaps the most extreme cases, bycatch of marine mammals in fishing operations is an inevitable
there are numerous others around the world where significant num­ consequence of fishing, in some nations any large-scale fatalities of
bers of marine mammals are killed incidentally in fishing operations. It marine mammals are publicly unacceptable regardless of whether
is usually the smaller species and those that occur in continental shelf they are sustainable at a population level.
waters where most fishing occurs that are impacted most heavily.
Incidental catches do not always impact on entire species. In
many instances, marine mammal species may be widespread and in III. Attempts to Resolve the Problem
little danger of overall extinction. Nevertheless, incidental catches Most of the numerically significant bycatches of marine mam­
may be frequent enough to reduce or eliminate a local population mals tend to be in static fishing gear, mainly gill nets. Despite the
(Fig. 1). This is the case for the harbor porpoise, Phocoena phocoena. attention focused on this subject in recent years, it is still not known
Although they are in no imminent danger of extinction as a species, how or why marine mammals actually become caught in such nets.
in several areas including the Gulf of Maine off the US northeast It is not known, for example, whether mammals are attracted to nets
coast, incidental catch rates are or have been high enough to push by the curiosity or by the presence of trapped fish, whether they do
local populations into decline. In other parts of its range, including not notice the netting, or whether they simply do not understand the
 Bycatch 169

potential consequence of swimming into it. Despite our ignorance, making changes may therefore reduce the profitability of a fishery.
some progress has been made toward resolving the problem. Effective mitigation measures therefore need to be devised in collab­
One potential solution to the problem of marine mammal cap­ oration with the fishing community to minimize the adverse impacts
ture in gill nets has been developed in North America. Pingers, or on fish catches and ensure that bycatch rates once lowered remain
acoustic beacons, exploit the sensitive hearing of marine mammals low, but they may also require a legislative approach to ensure com­
by emitting an intermittent, short, high-pitched noise that most pliance. In this respect, managing the incidental capture of marine
fish cannot hear but that appears to repel or warn off marine mam­ mammals may be seen as part of a much more wide-ranging and B
mals. Attached at regular intervals along the length of a gill net, ongoing problem of managing a global industry that, in the last 50
these pocket-sized devices have been shown to reduce the numbers years, has outgrown its resource base.
of bycaught marine mammals, mainly harbor porpoises, but also
dolphins and sea lions, by up to 90%. Pingers were first developed
in Canada, and their use is now mandatory in several US and EU See Also the Following Articles
fisheries.
Pingers certainly appear to be useful, but there are still some Entrapment and Entanglement Fisheries ■ Interference with
concerns about their use. If, as seems to be the case, pingers dis­ Tuna–Dolphin Issue ■ Baiji ■ Vaquita
place animals from an area adjacent to the fishing gear, and if they
are used to the very large numbers that would seem to be neces­
sary in some areas, then it is also possible that marine mammals may References
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on having their batteries replaced or on being recharged, and they Commission.” IATTC, La Jolla, CA.
rely on people performing this task to ensure that they continue to Gerrodette, T., and Forcada, J. (2005). Non-recovery of two spotted and
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