At least 7.3m tons of fish (usually dead or dying) are thought to be discarded each year from marine fisheries around the world. But these estimates come mostly from observations of large-scale industrial fisheries.
Limited attention has been paid to small-scale fisheries, which are assumed to have low discard rates – some estimate as little as 3.7% total catch, compared to more than 60% for some large-scale shrimp trawlers.
Small-scale or artisanal fisheries – for which there is no universal definition – are generally considered more sustainable than their large-scale industrial counterparts, but there is increasing evidence that shows this is not always the case.
They employ more than 99% of the world’s 51m fishers and likely account for more than half of the total global fisheries catches.
One of the biggest problems for both large and small-scale fisheries around the globe is bycatch – fish and other marine organisms caught when the fishers are targeting something else.
Powerful images of turtles and dolphins caught in fishing gear have caught the sympathy of the general public, but unintentional landings of fish aren’t as evocative. The truth is, however, that fish bycatch is a big issue.
Progress is being made in Europe within large-scale fisheries thanks to campaigns such as the Fish Fight. But small-scale fisheries – though there is increasing recognition outside that they are “too big to ignore” – are only just beginning to recognise the fish bycatch and discards problem.
Newly published research has found that artisanal fisheries in Sri Lanka are throwing away more marine species than they keep. For every fishing trip in one of Sri Lanka’s largest lagoons, Puttalam Lagoon, fishermen could be throwing away more than 50 fish.
What’s more, of the 62 species recorded in the survey, more than 80% were routinely discarded. The reasons for this practice are unclear but sometimes it is because the individual fish are too small – or they are species without a high market value.
The study found that fishers targeting shrimp in particular caught more non-target species and had higher discards than those targeting fish. This is particularly worrying at a time when Sri Lankan shrimp exports are increasing, after the EU granted the country improved access to its market.
Read the full article at The Conversation and the research paper here.
Tags: Fisheries, Management, Marine, Prawn, Research, Seafood