The Shark By-Watch UK 2 project has released a new report drawing on the expertise from across the industry, the retail supply chain, science and NGOs.
The report is called Research Priorities: innovative solutions for preventing bycatch and dead-discards of threatened sharks, skates and rays.
Stuart Moss, a Thames Estuary inshore fishermen who been part of the project, said, “We hope that our involvement in this project will lead to greater coordination of knowledge between fishermen and scientists to fully understand the thornback ray population.”
He added, “So that the population in the Thames Estuary can be better managed hopefully on a more local level.”
The report provides practical advice, drawing on fishers’ experience, to develop measures for bycatch avoidance of certain species.
It emphasises the important of using fisher knowledge in research and trailing innovative technologies and management measures to advance prevention of economically and environmentally costly unwanted shark, skate and ray bycatch.
The report has a theme running through it that there is a need for more data on locations and behaviour of the species involved.
Following eight months of fisher-led participatory research around the UK coast, a second phase of the Shark By-Watch UK project held a concluding workshop on 17 December.
This phase was run by the Centre of Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS).
CEFAS scientist, Stuart Hetherington, explained, “It is vital that more up-to-date information is collected to feed into fisheries and conservation policy for sharks, skates and rays. Projects such as Shark By-Watch UK 2 work with fishermen using their knowledge, fishing vessels and gears to efficiently gather information on numbers and locations of sharks.”
Delegates at the workshop in December agreed that further research in the area is required and therefore the project will be looking to secure funding for a third phase.
Mr Hetherington concluded, “A better understanding of the species we’re studying can lead to better management for the future of the species and for fishermen.”
The report can be read on the Shark By-Watch UK 2 website.
