Working with Fishers to Prevent Seabird Bycatch, Filey Bay & Bempton Cliffs, North Yorkshire.
In the summer months, Filey Bay is home to thousands of breeding seabirds, a wildlife spectacle enjoyed by many visitors. It is also the location of a sea trout and salmon gillnet fishery. Interactions which occur between the seabirds and fishing gear can result in bycatch as seabirds accidentally become tangled in the nets and drown, if they are not released quickly.
RSPB have been working with the Filey netsmen, the Environment Agency and Natural England to mitigate the bycatch problem. Hear from Rory Crawford and Rex Harrison about the successes of this collaborative project, developing long-term sustainable solutions to the bycatch problem at Bempton Cliffs, that can be applied worldwide.
Find out more about this project, and the work of RSPB here: www.rspb.org.uk