Net Loss: How Industrial Bycatch Is Gutting Our Local Fishing Economy
When industrial trawler fleets discard unwanted “bycatch,” they’re not just throwing away fish, they’re destroying the economic lifeline of our small-scale coastal fishers who depend on healthy, abundant stocks.
Bycatch refers to non-target marine animals caught during commercial fishing operations. Industrial trawlers are the largest contributors to bycatch, often capturing a wide range of species, most of which are thrown overboard, either deceased or in severe condition.
An average trawl catch in the Pacific Northwest totals around 38,500 tonnes. Of that, industrial trawlers operating in B.C. waters discard approximately23% as bycatch [p.6].
That’s roughly 8,855 tonnes per trawl, about the same amount of household waste the entire town of Nelson, B.C., generates in a year. This often includes young fish too small to sell from the very species the vessels are targeting.
What are Midwater trawlers? —> What species do they target?
These fishing vessels use large, cone-shaped trawl nets composed of several sections, mouth, body, and codend. These nets can reach lengths comparable to several football fields and are kept open horizontally and vertically using heavy steel doors, floats, and weighted lines. During fishing, the nets are towed through the water column above the seafloor. In British Columbia, midwater trawlers predominantly target Pacific hake (also known as whiting) and walleye pollock, both schooling pelagic fish that inhabit the midwater column off the coast. While the primary targets are hake and pollock, incidental bycatch can include species such as herring, salmon, eulachon, and occasionally krill.
What are Bottom trawlers? —> What species do they target?
The nets used in bottom trawling are similarly large and are dragged directly along the seafloor, enabling the capture of bottom-dwelling species. Bottom trawling in British Columbia’s waters is directed at a diverse range of groundfish species, notably including several types of rockfish, flatfish (such as sole and flounder), Pacific cod, Pacific hake, pollock, lingcod, and sablefish. Shrimp are also an important target for certain trawl fisheries using this technique. This method is particularly efficient for harvesting commercial groundfish but is associated with significant bycatch of non-target species, including halibut, sponges, corals, and crabs.
Who Are The Bycatch Billionaires?
Identifying the owners of industrial trawlers is challenging due to legal and privacy barriers. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is restricted by privacy laws that prevent the release of detailed ownership information, making it difficult for the public, journalists, and researchers to see who really profits from these fishing operations. Much of the information is held by private companies, and requests for vessel ownership history are often denied, even to non-profit groups.
This lack of transparency allows complex corporate structures or foreign entities to hide who controls valuable fishing licenses and quotas. As a result, large corporate entities can grow unchecked, while local fishers struggle to compete. The absence of clear ownership also means that issues like bycatch and the other environmental and economic impacts of trawl fishing are harder to address.
Our local communities, who depend on healthy ecosystems and fair fisheries management, are often left without the accountability and oversight needed to protect their interests.
Why does it matter?
High bycatch hampers fish stock recovery by capturing and killing not only non-target marine life but also target fish, including juveniles and spawning adults. This reduces the ability of target fish to reproduce and rebuild populations, contributing to overfishing. All these fatalities contribute to the breakdown of marine ecosystems. As a result, fish populations struggle to replenish, leading to smaller stocks and increased vulnerability to collapse.
Over time, bycatch-related stock declines decrease fishery productivity and profitability, threatening the long-term viability of the fishing economy. High bycatch can also force fisheries to close early once catch limits are exceeded, cutting seasons short and costing local fishers their income and jobs. These closures hurt coastal communities, while larger fleets may relocate to less-regulated areas. This uneven impact undermines economic stability and disrupts entire supply chains, from harvesting to processing to local markets.
Decomposing Trouble
Dead bycatch consumes dissolved oxygen, leading to low-oxygen conditions that harm marine life.
Species at Risk
Non-selective bottom trawls inadvertently catch and harm at-risk species, making their avoidance nearly impossible.
Food Web Impacts
Removing key species through bycatch disrupts the entire food web, unbalancing marine ecosystems.
Cumulative Impacts of Trawling
55%
Average reduction in abundance of animals in the trawled area from a single tow Collie et al.’s
The Mortality of Discarded Bycatch
Rockfish: Vulnerable to Barotrauma
Rockfish are highly susceptible to barotrauma due to their closed swim bladders. This results in a near-100% mortality rate for discarded rockfish in trawl fisheries. In Canadian Pacific groundfish trawls, any rockfish bycatch not retained is presumed dead.
Halibut: High Discard Mortality
Pacific halibut is a significant bycatch concern, with discard mortality in trawl gear typically high (50-90%). All halibut caught in bottom trawl fisheries contribute to a mortality cap. Mortality sources include undersized fish, those dying on lost gear, and regulatory discards. Due to insufficient documentation, management often assumes near-total mortality (up to 100%) for trawl-caught halibut.
Salmon: Prohibited and Perishing
Estimated bycatch of Pacific salmon in the groundfish trawl fishery reached its highest recorded level in 2022/23 with 28,117 salmon caught, primarily Chinook (93%). Salmon are prohibited species, meaning they cannot be sold. Survival of trawl-caught salmon is virtually zero; DFO reports assume almost all do not survive .
Crabs: Crushed and Damaged
Trawl nets frequently capture crabs like Dungeness and Tanner crabs, causing crushing injuries or damage. Scientific studies indicate post-trawl mortality for crabs ranges from 40–60% due to immediate death or subsequent injuries . Many discarded juvenile crabs perish soon after release. Certain areas are seasonally closed in BC to protect crab populations due to common bycatch.
Echinoderms: Impacted Seafloor Life
Echinoderms, like large sea stars, are exceptionally vulnerable to bottom trawling. A single pass can reduce sea star abundance by 10–30% . Other echinoderms, including brittle stars and sea cucumbers, experience high mortality. A study in Alaska showed invertebrate density (including echinoderms) declined by up to 68% after just one trawl pass .
Reef-Forming Invertebrates: Habitat Destruction
Bottom trawling severely impacts sessile reef-forming invertebrates like cold-water corals and sponge reefs, breaking off branches and shredding colonies. It's estimated that 50% of known glass sponge reefs in BC were damaged by trawling before protective measures . Once detached or broken, mortality is nearly 100% . Other molluscs and soft-bodied creatures also suffer high mortality (10-50%) in trawl paths . Overall, 20-50% of all benthic invertebrate organisms in a trawl path are killed outright.
This consolidation doesn’t just undermine local livelihoods; it drives ecological harm. With massive quotas to fill, corporate trawlers have every incentive to maximize volume, even if it means discarding thousands of tonnes of “unprofitable” or unlicensed species. Bycatch becomes routine, and small-scale fishers lose out twice: once when they’re priced out of licenses, and again when corporate boats scoop up and waste what they’re licensed to catch. The result is a system where a handful of companies profit, independent crews are pushed out, and marine ecosystems bear the cost.
Why Can't Bycatch Be Sold?
Allowing corporate trawlers to sell species they are not licensed to catch, even if a quota exists, is a superficial fix that would create significant problems for independent fishermen and the overall health of our coast. Here's why:
Incentive for High-Grading
If bycatch were salable, trawlers would gain a direct incentive to deliberately target valuable species for which they lack licenses, then claim these as "accidental" catch. This practice, known as high-grading, directly undermines established quotas and licensing systems. What is one entity's bycatch, be it halibut, lingcod, or rockfish, is another's target species.
Undermining Licensed Fisheries
Many coastal fishermen rely on species like halibut or lingcod, which they are properly licensed to catch. Permitting trawlers to flood the market with unlicensed bycatch would drive down prices and directly undercut these licensed fishers. This disproportionately impacts small-scale fishers, many of whom operate on razor-thin margins, often renting quota from the very corporate entities that own trawlers, thus weakening the integrity and fairness of the existing licensing and Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) system.
Risk to Management and Marine Productivity
Fishing quotas and regulations are not mere bureaucracy; they are science-based protections designed to safeguard spawning stock, juvenile fish, vulnerable species, and other non-target species essential to the marine food web. Allowing the sale of "unintentional" catch would bypass these critical safeguards, jeopardizing long-term marine productivity and sustainability.
Monitoring Failures: When Nobody's Watching
Monitoring Canadian fisheries today relies on a mix of electronic logbooks (ELOGs), onboard cameras, sensors, and independent methods like aerial surveys and port sampling.
However, electronic monitoring systems, designed to replace human observers on vessels, are far from flawless. In British Columbia, for instance, some industrial trawlers have been caught turning off or disabling their tracking systems, like the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which is meant to provide real-time vessel location data for monitoring and enforcement. A recent investigation by Pacific Wild, supported by spatial ecologist Kevin Lester, revealed multiple instances where large trawlers switched off their AIS transponders, temporarily making them undetectable to monitoring agencies. This raises serious concerns, as it could conceal fishing activity, including trawling inside protected Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) or other restricted habitats where trawling is banned.Former observers have also shared alarming stories of intimidation, underreporting, and deliberate evasion tactics used by some industrial fishers, further undermining the accuracy of official data.
These issues, combined with technical failures and intentional obstructions of onboard cameras, create a troubling lack of reliable data, weakening fisheries monitoring in B.C.
Real Solutions: Beyond the Band-Aid
Solutions to industrial trawler bycatch must go beyond temporary or partial fixes and address the root causes of non-selective fishing, protecting both marine ecosystems and coastal livelihoods. A multifaceted approach includes:
Protected Areas Expansion
Establishing more marine protected areas (MPAs) where trawling is prohibited allows fish and marine ecosystems to rejuvenate. These refuges preserve critical habitats and nursery grounds, supporting population recovery and benefiting adjacent fishing grounds.
Improved Gear Technology
Investing in more selective fishing gear reduces bycatch by incorporating modified nets with escape panels, species-specific adaptations, and designs that minimize contact with the seafloor. This includes innovations like flexible sorting grids.
Enhanced Monitoring and Enforcement
Strengthening observer programs with better protections against intimidation and expanding the use of advanced electronic monitoring enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI) can improve data accuracy and compliance. Combining human oversight with technology boosts transparency.
Incentives for Selective Fishing
Creating financial rewards or market incentives for fishing operations that demonstrate consistently low bycatch encourages innovation and adoption of best practices. Programs promoting sustainable sourcing can motivate industry-wide change.
Take Action: Protecting Our Waters and Communities
Industrial bycatch is an unacceptable waste, particularly at a time when food security is more critical than ever. While we're all encouraged to reduce waste and make every resource count, industrial trawlers do the exact opposite, callously discarding marine life that could feed communities in need.
As seafood prices rise, many families can no longer afford basics like salmon, yet these very fish are being thrown overboard as bycatch by massive fishing operations. This growing gap between corporate waste and the struggles of everyday people is fueling outrage across the country. It's time to demand change. We must stand together to protect our waters, our marine life, and the well-being of our communities. Now is the time to hold industrial trawlers accountable and push for sustainable, responsible fishing practices that respect both our ecosystems and our people.