The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced it will award up to $2.5 million in grants to marine researchers working to reduce bycatch in the fishing industry.
The Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program seeks to encourage the development of new fishing gear that will minimize bycatch and impacts of fishing on marine habitats according to the announcement.
"This is a national program and the spectrum associated with this is pretty broad,' said Ryan Silva, cooperative research liaison with the northeast regional office of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
"We've already gotten some inquiries from researchers who engage in this type of work," Silva said. "We want to work with industry to reduce bycatch. This is the first year and we'll see where it goes."
Among the program's top priorities are the reduction of bycatch of protected species, such as sea turtles and Atlantic sturgeon which may be caught inadvertently in trawls and gillnets.
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