More and more consumers around the world demand sustainably caught seafood.

Joining their calls, international management forums call for the use of more environmentally-responsible fishing methods.

Now, seafood industries in the Coral Triangle have the opportunity to create solutions for reducing bycatch while keeping their businesses viable.

Supporting the adoption and use of gear solutions such as circle hooks, for example, is a “win-win” solution (see our case study).

Why? These hooks do not negatively impact target catch and can show a company’s proactive response to conservation and sustainability issues.

Solutions to reduce bycatch also exist for shrimp trawls

The use of Turtle Excluder Devices and/or other excluding devices can significant reduce impacts on marine turtles and provide better overall management together with the adoption of best practices.

Such approaches can also reduce the amount of unmanaged “trash fish” indiscriminately harvested along with the shrimp, making these fisheries more responsible.

There are many obstacles. But WWF knows from experience that all of these solutions are feasible to implement if all actors—industry, fishers, government and the conservation community—seriously address the issue together.