Target Large Schools

Published science shows that fishers can reduce bycatch simply by targeting larger schools of tuna. In the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Dagorn et al. found that the total amount of bycatch is more dependent on the number of sets than the total catch of tuna.

Fishers should target schools larger than 10 tons to reduce shark bycatch by 23 to 41 percent. Overall, using this method will cut the amount of bycatch by 23 to 43 percent, depending on the ocean region (see shark/tuna chart on the next page.)