Welcome by MEP Paulo do Nascimento Cabral

This year's EU Ocean Week organised by the big Blue NGOs in collaboration with Members of the European Parliament also featured the bycatch reduction challenge in a morning session on Thursday, 18 October 2025. How to enhance life in the ocean so that we drastically reduce harm when taking a share.

Every year, countless harbour porpoises, dolphins, seabirds, sea turtles, and other protected marine species are unintentionally caught and killed in fishing gear—a preventable tragedy known as bycatch. Bycatch of unwanted species in bottom trawling for shrimps e.g. can reach 60 to 80% of juvenile fish and invertebrates in the catch that are then typically discarded dead or dying at sea. It's a tremendous waste and destruction. Some of the tuna long-lining also happily targets endangered blue and mako sharks for their high market prices, though they are declared 'unfortunate' bycatch.

Despite years of awareness raising and mounting evidence of the pressure on the nominally protected mega-fauna species and other species, existing measures have fallen short of delivering meaningful, lasting change.

Sponsored by MEP Paulo do Nascimento Cabral, and organised by Seas At Risk, Birdlife and EIA-International, Mundus maris attended this event to catch up with the specialists and learn what to prioritise for our ocean literacy efforts. We were not disappointed, because the experienced speakers provided precious insights into the greatest current pitfalls, but reported as well on tested response policies to reduce the slaughter.

Sarah Dolman, IEA-International

Sea bird populations have shrunk to a small percentage of their former size in the last few decades under the combined effects of overfishing their prey in near-surface waters, destroying nests, bycatch in fisheries, plastic pollution, climate change and more.

Sarah Dolman of EIA-International and Daniel Mitchell of Birdlife shared well-researched action points about what are current crunch points and what needs to happen to minimize the bycatch problems in the EU.

Most EU Member States lack systematic bycatch monitoring programmes. As fishing effort data are also not available for all fisheries, it is feared that the true scale of the problem is not fully appreciated.

Working with fishers and involving them through co-management and training will be an important element for better understanding, safe handling and release of birds caught, and slowing or even halting the bird population decline.

Courtesy Birdlife & Seas At Risk

The mapping of documented vulnerabilities, particularly represented by mapping the distribution of long-line and gillnet fisheries around Europe, illustrates the scale of the threats to many seabirds. They have learnt that being near fishing vessels can increase the chances of catching food that has become scarce due to massive catches of near-surface small pelagic species which are prey to both large marine fish and mammals as well as seabirds.

Adapting fishing practices like avoiding to set such gears near bird aggregations, setting gears as much as possible at night when birds are less active, avoid throwing discards or offal overboard while setting or hauling gear, avoid using small pelagics as bait, release seabirds still alive.

One cheap and easy-to-use method for keeping seabirds away from boats when paying out or hauling in gears, is the scary-bird kite tested successfully with gillnet fishers in Portugal, similar to what is sometimes effectively used in fields on land.

Cormorants, Photo by Jürgen on Pixabay

Mundus maris reckons that the crisis in the Baltic illustrates the overlapping of issues: Back in 2011 a report documented that actual catches were on average 30% higher than officially recorded. The publication created an outcry of the fishing lobby against the authors, but no stronger measures against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and high discards of bycatch.

The competition between fishers and other animals eating fishing, such as the harbour porpoises, seals and seabirds is a running battle. Understandably, fishers are annoyed when nets get torn or caught fish snapped from their nets. But it can't be that humans demand almost everything for themselves, even attacking cormorants for eating 'our' fish. Without a functioning and productive ecosystem, there is also no fish and no fisheries. We reported on the 2024 emergency meeting called by the LIFE Platform of Low Impact Fishers of Europe. Danish coastal fishers reported in the occasion good stable catches from high biomasses of adult fish in areas where trawling was prohibited.

The answer to the sorry state of the Baltic must thus be regenerating its almost terminally ill ecosystems. For that, industrial fishing pressure – especially fish meal reduction fisheries on small pelagics and the particularly energy and by-catch intensive bottom trawling – must be stopped, and pollution significantly reduced.

Citizens enjoying their vacation by the sea, and particularly those loving their Baltic herring sandwich or meal, join the demands to talk less and do more – it's URGENT. Whether you live close to the shores or further away, healthy European seas teaming with life are good for all of us. It's time to give back to the ocean and our seas!

Photo by Pexel on Pixabay

Bruno Nicostrate, Seas At Risk

In the final part of the event, Bruno Nicostrate of Seas At Risk, one of the co-organisers, seized the opportunity to draw attention to the just published « Bycatch Guide« . The most effective approaches to reducing bycatch are:

• an overall reduction of fishing effort
• a combination of mitigation measures adapted to local context
• training for competent handling and release practices to maximise the survival of accidentally caught animals still alive.
• implement de Technical Measures Regulation of 2019 and include sensitive species in the evaluation
• expand protections for sharks and rays (Elasmobrachs) under EU regulations
• allocate fishing rights preferentially to low or no-bycatch fisheries
• enhance monitoring of bycatch
• support bycatch reducation efforts taking into account socio-economic considerations and using conditionality of any funding.

This morning meeting provided more than enough food for thought for weeks and months to come. The challenge goes beyond the professionals and should reach right to seafood consumers. Just as concerned citizens are demanding animal welfare on land, doing a lot more to reduce suffering and killing at sea must be part and parcel of marine fishing and aquaculture practices.

Text and photos by Cornelia E Nauen unless indicated otherwise.