Action

Action Synopsis: Bird Conservation About Actions

Use high-visibility mesh on gillnets to reduce seabird bycatch

How is the evidence assessed?
  • Effectiveness
    48%
  • Certainty
    30%
  • Harms
    0%

Study locations

Key messages

  • A repeated, randomised and controlled trial in the USA found that having gillnets made partially from high-visibility mesh was effective in reducing seabird bycatch.
  • Having a greater percentage (25% vs. 10%) of the net made from high-visibility mesh was more effective, but also reduced catch of the target species.

 

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

  1. A repeated, randomised and controlled trial in a drift gillnet fishery in North Puget Sound, Washington, USA, in July- August 1996 (Melvin et al. 1999), found that nets fitted with highly visible mesh in the top 25% caught significantly fewer common guillemots (common murres) Uria aalge and rhinoceros auklets Cerorhinca monocerata than control nets (guillemots: 0.37 vs. 0.6 entanglements/net; auklets: approximately 0.05 vs. 0.2 entanglements/net). Nets fitted with highly visible mesh in the top 10% caught significantly fewer guillemots than controls (0.32 vs. 0.6 entanglements/net), but there was no significant change in the number of auklets caught. Nets with 25% high visibility mesh also caught significantly fewer sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka, the target species, compared to controls (10 vs. 36 entanglements/net). A total of eight boats and 482 net sets were studied.

    Study and other actions tested
Please cite as:

Williams, D.R., Child, M.F., Dicks, L.V., Ockendon, N., Pople, R.G., Showler, D.A., Walsh, J.C., zu Ermgassen, E.K.H.J. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Bird Conservation. Pages 137-281 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

 

Where has this evidence come from?

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Bird Conservation

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bird Conservation
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What Works in Conservation provides expert assessments of the effectiveness of actions, based on summarised evidence, in synopses. Subjects covered so far include amphibians, birds, mammals, forests, peatland and control of freshwater invasive species. More are in progress.

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