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Bycatch, the unintended capture of animals in commercial fishing gear, is one of the hottest topics in marine conservation today. About 25% of the entire global catch is bycatch. This surprisingly high level of bycatch is responsible for the decline of hundreds of thousands of dolphins, whales, porpoises, seabirds and sea turtles each year. Through this curricular unit, students will analyze the significance of bycatch in the global ecosystem and propose solutions to help reduce bycatch. Students will become familiar with current attempts to reduce fishing mortality of these animals, such as acoustic alarms, breakaway links, gear modification, and time-area closures. Through the associated activity, the problems that managers face today will be reinforced and students will be stimulated to brainstorm about possible engineering designs or policy changes that could reduce the magnitude of bycatch.

Students will study bycatch from an engineering perspective to design technological solutions for addressing the problem. After learning how echolocation works, students discuss how net designs can be made easier for dolphins to "see" using echolocation and therefore less likely for dolphins to entangle themselves in.

Science and Technology

Lesson 1: A journal reflection on the classroom discussion surrounding bycatch and its importance.
Activity 1: Evaluation of data obtained related to students' experimental 'bycatching' percentages, conclusions drawn, and comments on other methods of reducing bycatch (such as a net design, acoustic alarms, etc.).
Lesson 2: A journal reflection on how bycatch affects dolphins and how we may prevent it using what they learned. They may also be asked to describe different gillnets and which ones are the most useful in preventing by-catch and which ones they would use themselves (depending on cost, efficiency, protection of dolphins).
Activity 2: Journal reflection on how hearing/reacting process worked/failed.
Activity 3: Evaluation of which surfaces were easier to identify and how they could tell which surfaces were deeper than others.

Engineering K-Ph.D. Program, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University Aruna Venkatesan, Primary Author, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Matt Nusnbaum , Author, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Angela Jiang, Author, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Vicki Thayer, Author, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Amy Whitt, Author, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University © 2004 by Engineering K-Ph.D. Program
including copyrighted works from other educational institutions and/or U.S. government agencies; all rights reserved.

Last Modified: April 25, 2007