2025 Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program Awards
NOAA Fisheries announces $2.4 million in funding for 10 innovative bycatch reduction research projects.
NOAA Fisheries has awarded $2.4 million to partners around the country to support 10 innovative bycatch reduction research projects through its Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program.
Bycatch is catch that fishermen do not want, cannot sell, or are not allowed to keep. Bycatch of various species—fish, marine mammals, or turtles—can have significant biological, economic, and social impacts. Preventing and reducing bycatch is a shared goal of fisheries managers, the fishing industry, and the environmental community.
Working side-by-side with fishermen on their boats we've developed solutions to some of the top bycatch challenges facing our nation's fisheries.
Examples of past regional projects include:
- Researchers on the West Coast have shown that a dual sorting flexible grid system, called Flexigrid, reduces under-sized sablefish bycatch by more than 45%, while maintaining catches of adult sablefish and other target fish species.
- In the Southeast, larger-sized 15/0 circle hooks are reducing more than 70% of under-sized red grouper bycatch and smaller 13/0 circle hooks having greater selectivity at catching red snapper.
Read brief descriptions of the selected projects
2025 Recipients by Region
Northeast/Mid-Atlantic
- Sea Mammal Education Learning Technology Society (SMELTS): $254,100
- Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Inc.: $258,527
- Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County: $226,780
Southeast/Gulf
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: $249,972
- Mote Marine Laboratory: $208,529
West Coast
- Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission: $243,797
- Sub Sea Sonics: $228,581
- Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative: $72,000
Alaska
- Alaska Department of Fish and Game: $348,723
Pacific Islands
- Hookpods Ltd.: $328,853
