Scientists and the fishing  industry are working hard to come up with ways for  people to catch fewer fish.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. The point of fishing is to catch fish!

But these researchers aren’t out of their minds. I mean, we don’t know them personally… At least, this goal isn’t as absurd as it sounds. They’re trying to reduce bycatch, which is catching animals other  than the ones you’re fishing for.

This can include living things  from tiny fish to giant whales. And for some of those guys, becoming bycatch is threatening to  wipe them off the planet entirely. And that’s …bad.

But since we can’t yell into the  water “No, get out of the net! I want the fish next to you!” here’s how scientists have proposed we  get more selective in what we catch. [♪ INTRO] When people cast a giant net for deep  ocean dwelling species like shrimp, those nets often catch a whole lot of  unwanted species near the surface, too. That gave a team of scientists  from Norway and elsewhere an idea.

What if we could design a net with  openings at the top and in the middle, but not the bottom where the  target species likes to hang out? So that’s what they did. And studies showed that these openings  in the middle and upper parts of the net could reduce bycatch without  losing the bulk of the shrimp.

With most of the shrimp staying in  the very bottom part of the net, the fishermen were able to  get what they needed while 70 percent of the higher swimming  fish were able to escape. It’s a win-win! But not all bycatch is fish.

Mammals, reptiles, and even birds  accidentally end up in our nets too. You might not expect birds to be bycatch, considering that they’re in the  sky and the nets are underwater. But up to 320,000 birds die  every year in fisheries!

When they dive for food, they  can get tangled in the nets. That’s definitely bad news. But researchers kind of accidentally  figured out a way to help our feathered friends when they  were trying to save turtles.

They added small LED lights to the nets  to help animals see them as they forage. Many target fish aren’t sensitive to  the lights, but turtles and birds are. And even something that simple helps a lot.

One study in Peru found that  it reduces bycatch for seabirds like the Guanay Cormorant by 85%! And, yes, it does also work for the  turtles it was designed to help. They had about a 40% reduction in  bycatch when these lit up nets were used.

But it’s not just life saving for bycatch animals. It also helps the fishermen by making  the nets easier to find and reel in, saving them over an hour  on their voyages every day. And if their lives are easier, they’re  way more likely to adopt this method.

But vision isn’t the only sense we  can use to keep bycatch numbers down. Some animals can be verbally told  to stay away from fishing nets. Since fishermen are not Aquaman,  they can’t talk to the sea creatures.

Like, they can’t just tell them to stop going in nets. But researchers have figured out  a way that they … sort of can. After they realized that dolphins were  getting caught in trawling and gill-nets and dying at an alarming rate, researchers  in France set out to save them.

Their idea was to basically tell the dolphins  to stay away using their own language. They recorded the sounds that  dolphins made when they found a net or a fellow dolphin who had died in a net. Then, they could play those sounds  from speakers near the nets.

And the dolphins left safely! They even made more sounds, possibly to  warn other dolphins, before heading out. Now, it’s really important to  send the right message here.

Some earlier studies weren’t so  specific and tried making noise to keep the dolphins away  using devices called pingers. But the pingers could either cause  more stress among the dolphins, or worse still, the dinner bell effect. In some cases, the pingers  stopped scaring the dolphins and instead acted as a beacon that  told them where the fish were.

And you can imagine how that would spiral  out of control and bring more dolphins over to the nets, where they’d get  caught and only make things worse. So playing recordings of their own warnings  may keep animals away from the nets. But even the best warning isn’t  going to work 100% of the time.

Which means we need ways to get animals  out of nets after they’re already stuck. One of the most common kinds of bycatch  in shrimp trawl nets is turtles. From 1990 to 2008, more than 85,000  turtles were found in those nets.

And when they get caught,  there’s nowhere for them to go. They’re stuck. So researchers basically proposed  a cow-catcher for turtles.

It’s called the turtle excluder device. This method uses a set of bars in the trawl nets to catch turtles and guide  them to an emergency exit. And it works really well!

A study from Australia found a  99% reduction in turtle bycatch when these devices were used. So this one solution could basically solve  the entire problem if fishing boats used them. Even better, the turtle cow-catcher  doesn’t just work on turtles.

Other large marine animals were also  significantly reduced as bycatch, with drops of around 86% for large  sharks and 94% for large rays. The number of sponges caught  was also reduced by about 80%. So as the saying goes, “turtle  excluder devices save all animals.” Nope, that is...that’s not the saying.

It’s “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Including the fishermen’s! See, good bycatch reduction measures  have to align with their interests too. Otherwise, they’ll never  be used in the real world.

And while turtle excluder devices did  cause a small drop in shrimp caught, they also reduced the amount of  damaged shrimp by as much as 61%. Researchers think that because they were  catching fewer big animals, the smaller shrimp weren’t being crushed in the net as  often, resulting in an overall better catch. So turtle excluder devices are really  successful at removing big animals.

But what about the largest animals around? Here’s how scientists are  working to save the whales. For some whales, like Northern Atlantic right  whales, being bycatch is not just a threat.

It’s their biggest threat. A huge percentage of them  show signs of entanglement, mainly from the ropes used in traps and crab pots. The whale swims through those  ropes and gets tangled up.

Then, as it thrashes around to free  itself, it just gets more and more stuck. The resulting ensnarement can lead  to drowning or devastating wounds that may eventually lead to death. It’s a long, drawn out process  over an average of 6 months.

So that’s a grim way to go. And it inspired researchers  to find another way to fish. To catch crabs and other species whose  fisheries rely on vertical ropes, they've come up with a new, rope-free method.

When the fishermen go to find their full traps, a device on their boat sends out a signal. When the trap receives that signal, it sends up a buoy so the fishermen  can find the trap and reel it in. Alternatively, the trap can float to the surface  using a gas canister triggered by the signal.

Right now, much of this is  still in the experimental phase, so we don’t have all the stats  on how much it reduces bycatch. But it still stands as a promising  invention for the future. So while we’re waiting for these new tools  to be tested, one of the simplest methods that can be implemented today is to change  the times and locations that people fish.

Avoiding the animals you’re not  fishing for is easier said than done. But with satellite tracking  data, it might be possible. And the turtles off the California  coast will thank us for it.

These protected species are the  bycatch of swordfish fishing. Using a combination of satellite tracking  data, weather reports, and onboard observers, researchers were able to figure out exactly  where the swordfish were compared to the turtles. That made it possible to fish  only where the target species was and not in areas where they  might overlap with bycatch.

But it’s not just a matter of where you fish. Sometimes, it’s more about when. Another study looking at a  fishery for albacore tuna found they had high rates of albatross bycatch.

They noticed that the  albatrosses were getting caught during the day when they forage. So the researchers suggested fishing at night. This led the fishermen to catch the  same amount of tuna as during the day, but with 99% less seabird bycatch!

Sometimes the simplest solution really does work. As they develop new ways to catch  only what we’re fishing for, researchers are determined to find answers  that don’t hurt a fisherman’s bottom line. And all of these methods can save lives  without sinking the livelihood of people.

This video was made in  collaboration with Seafood Watch, a program of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Seafood Watch takes a scientific approach to assess the environmental  sustainability of seafood sold on the U. S. market and then uses those findings to transform how seafood is fished and farmed around the globe.

No matter where you live, the ocean  plays an enormous role in your life. You can help protect it by choosing  environmentally sustainable seafood at your favorite grocery store or restaurant. Seafood Watch makes this easy  by providing shopping guides and tools to help you on your  sustainable seafood quest.

Go to SeafoodWatch.org to get started. [♪ OUTRO]