Bycatch in Fishing

Thank you for to everyone who contacted me about bycatch. I recognise that accidental bycatch in fisheries is one of the greatest threats faced by sensitive marine species.

I know the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) works in partnership with the fishing industry, academics and environmental non-governmental organisations to tackle this. I am aware of ongoing collaborative work to develop a seabird bycatch action plan for England.

I support Defra’s ongoing funding of a range of monitoring initiatives. These include the Bycatch Monitoring Programme which reports annually on bycatch rates analysed by gear type, the Cefas fisheries observer programme, and the Cetacean Stranding Investigation Programme. Our Government has also commissioned the Bycatch Risk Prioritisation Framework, which is a comprehensive evidence review analysing bycatch across sensitive marine species.

You may also be aware of the Clean Catch programme, which works with fisheries in England to develop and trial ways to gather data on and mitigate the bycatch of sensitive marine species. These trials include the use of pingers for marine mammals and Bird Scaring Lines for seabirds, which both use Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) to collect further data on bycatch and the effectiveness of mitigation.

I welcome the international role our Government plays, including tabling a recent proposal to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. This recommended modifications to fishing gear which have been proven to reduce seabird bycatch in longline fisheries. Although this has not yet been adopted, it helps lay the pathway for future work on addressing seabird bycatch in international tuna fisheries.

More broadly, I continue to support our Government’s 30by30 commitment which will effectively conserve and manage 30% of our land and seas by 2030. This is at the heart of our Government’s nature recovery plan. At sea, over 40% of English waters are designated as Marine Protected Areas. I support our Government as it puts in place any management measures needed to effectively protect them. These measures are developed by experts in the Marine Management Organisation, informed by ecological advice by expert nature conservationists. I’ll be following updates very closely.