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10/07/2008: "Dolphin & Porpoise Bycatch"

Last year, the SeaDoc Society-funded the first ever evaluation of small cetacean bycatch in British Columbia.

The results have just been published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.


In 2007, SeaDoc funded Dr. Rob Williams at the University of British Columbia to determine if salmon gillnet fisheries in British Columbia were killing an unsustainable number of harbor porpoise, Dall's porpoise and Pacific white-sided dolphins. This is routinely done on the US side of the Salish Sea, but not in British Columbia. Bycatch estimates exceeded only the most precautionary limits for harbor and Dall's porpoise. The next step will be to get Canada to develop a stock structure for these marine mammals, as is done in US waters.