Every year, tens of thousands of rays, sharks and cetaceans fall victim to “by-catch”, i.e. accidentally caught without being targeted by fishermen. Caught in nets, these sensitive marine animals find themselves trapped with no hope of survival. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), up to 40% of the world’s fishing catch is by-catch.

❌ Worse still, a large proportion of these catches are not even reported. Artisanal fishermen, faced with technical and logistical difficulties, lack the means to report such incidents. The animals are therefore discreetly thrown back into the water, leading to their silent extinction.

✨ This is where the Bycatch & Beyond project comes in. Its aim is to involve artisanal fishermen in monitoring endangered species in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. How can we do this? By providing them with low-tech, easy-to-use GPS radio tracking devices. These devices will not only enable them to report by-catches of rays and sharks, but also to create a network of fishermen-actors in the collection of conservation data.

📽️ Watch the video of Alifa Bintha Haque, Zoology researcher at the University of Dhaka, who is behind this fascinating project!