Defra is currently developing the implementation plan for England under the Marine Wildlife Bycatch Mitigation Initiative, which sets out how the UK Government will minimise sensitive marine species bycatch and entanglement in UK fisheries. As part of this, Defra seeks to collate a comprehensive list of past, current, and future work on bycatch monitoring and mitigation across the whole of UK. This includes – but may not be limited to – projects by government, industry, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Arms Length Bodies (ALBs), and universities. This stock-take exercise will also inform the activities of Clean Catch.
If you are or have been involved in any such work, we would be grateful if you would download and enter your information into the provided spreadsheet template and send this to Rkia Bouatmani (Rkia.Bouatmani@defra.gov.uk) by Close of Business on Friday 26 April. The spreadsheet includes guidance on how to complete it, but please do not hesitate to direct any queries to Rkia. Please note that you will need to enable macros to run in Microsoft Excel in order to complete the spreadsheet.
Explore the Bycatch Mitigation Hub to find possible measures to reduce bycatch